A searchable database showcasing our funded research projects has just been launched on blood.ca. Together with our publications database, research highlights, links to this blog, research units and other news, you’ll discover a comprehensive knowledge hub for the transfusion and transplantation community.

A previous post in our "The things we do for safety" series explores leukoreduction - or how white blood cells or leukocytes get filtered out of blood products to reduce the risk of transfusion-related reactions. Battling bacteria (part 1) Bacteria can be found pretty much everywhere and while some contribute to our wellness others can cause serious harm, especially if transfused to a patient whose health is already compromised. Over the years, blood operators have implemented a variety of measures to limit the bacterial contamination of blood components. In this series on “Battling bacteria”

A two-day meeting held January 2017 brought together national and international stakeholders to identify research priorities for closing knowledge gaps that impact donor eligibility for men who have sex with men.

“ From the perspective of the blood system, our role I believe is to facilitate research that is required to provide patients with the safest and most effective blood and blood products.”

The 12th Annual Transfusion Medicine Education Videoconference takes place April 12, 2017. Pre-register today.

Blood is red. That’s because of the red blood cells or erythrocytes that whizz around your veins and arteries. The colour is a great visual marker, both clinically and emotionally, but sometimes its very redness hides the other important components that are in you to give. These include plasma, the straw-coloured liquid that carries red blood cells, white cells (leukocytes), other important molecules such as albumin, antibodies and coagulation factors, and tiny fragmentary cells called platelets. What are platelets ? Platelets, or thrombocytes, are spherical cells (shaped like "plates"), much

We are now accepting applications for the 2017 competition of our Intramural Research Grant program!

The R.E.D. blog launched in February 2016 and we’ve published 47 articles that have attracted a combined total of 37,000 readers. We hope you’ve enjoyed them.

Communicating science is an important part of the job for anyone involved in clinical research, whether it takes place face-to-face with the patient, a donor or the wider scientific community. Unfortunately, outreach like this can seem a daunting prospect to the lab scientist and practitioner; it is often easier to hide behind the bench or the stethoscope.

Go back to Making decisions the right way - a global endeavour - Part 1 A risk-based decision-making analysis on babesia in Canada Canadian Blood Services put babesia risk through the risk-based decision-making framework. We were curious about babesia risk and the experience of using the framework to determine a course of action. To find out more, we caught up with Dr. Margaret Fearon, medical director of microbiology at Canadian Blood Services. She is an expert in infectious diseases and conducts surveillance of bloodborne pathogens and emerging infectious threats to the blood supply