The 2021 AABB Virtual Annual Meeting last month was marked by two highlights for Canadian Blood Services: the inauguration of our chief scientist, Dr. Dana Devine, as AABB president, and Dr. Devine’s recognition with a prestigious AABB leadership award.

In August this year Dr. Alvin Zipursky, a Canadian physician and researcher, died at the age of 90. He was renowned for improving children’s health in Canada and around the world and made research discoveries that were central to developing a life-saving treatment for a deadly disease called rhesus hemolytic disease, also known as Rh disease. Canadian Blood Services employees with a special connection to Dr. Zipursky describe how his drive to eradicate Rh disease worldwide continues to inspire their work today.

The 2021-2022 Canadian Blood Services’ Lay Science Writing Competition launched this week! This year’s theme invites trainees to use plain language to tell their “Science behind the scenes” stories.

Several competitive training and funding programs to support graduate fellowships and educational and research projects are open for applications until November 15! Read on to learn more about these opportunities and hear about past recipients.

The University of British Columbia’s Centre for Blood Research-School of Biomedical Engineering (CBR-SBME) Research Day celebrates the progress and accomplishments of summer students. It takes place every August, at the conclusion of the CBR-SBME Summer Studentship Program, which is supported in part by Canadian Blood Services. In this post, two Summer Student Program alumni describe the 2021 virtual event.

The latest evidence on managing patients with massive hemorrhage, a major cause of potentially preventable deaths, is now available in a recently updated chapter of Canadian Blood Services’ Clinical Guide to Transfusion.

A powerful collaboration between blood services, research institutions and industry leaders promises to advance blood transfusion therapy to new levels of precision and safety.

The transfusion medicine traineeship support administered by Canadian Blood Services was recently renamed to honour Dr. Elianna Saidenberg — an expert in hematopathology and transfusion medicine and an inspirational physician and educator — who passed away in late 2019.

Canadian Blood Services recently published its annual Surveillance Report, a summary of monitoring efforts related to transmissible infection testing in donors; possible transfusion-transmitted infections in recipients; and new, emerging pathogens. Surveillance also includes monitoring of donor safety.

At the start of the pandemic, convalescent plasma was seen as potential therapy for treating COVID-19. But now, an international team led by Canadian scientists has published results from the largest clinical trial on convalescent plasma and COVID-19, showing it is not effective as a treatment against COVID-19.