In late April 2022, Canadian Blood Services’ research-informed request to remove eligibility criteria specific to men who have sex with men and instead use sexual behaviour-based screening for all donors was approved by Health Canada. Read on to learn about two published studies from Canadian Blood Services that contributed to the body of evidence supporting this change.

We teamed up with Science Borealis and the Centre for Blood Research to deliver the 2021-2022 Canadian Blood Services Lay Science Writing Competition. In a recently published blog post, Science Borealis interviewed the winner of that competition, Alexandra Witt, to learn about her creative process and how she crafted a winning piece of writing.

The 11th annual Centre for Blood Research Norman Bethune Symposium was held on April 6, 2022. With a focus on recent research advances in bleeding and thrombosis, the symposium engages scientists and clinicians at all levels of training.