UH biomedical engineering professor Sergey Shevkoplyas received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of Health in April for his work concerning blood transfusions.
Shevkoplyas and his team are developing a device that will transfuse blood more safely, particularly for those prone to infection or with conditions such as sickle-cell disease. The grant stems from NIH’s Transformative Research Project, which recognizes groundbreaking, original research projects.
“Transfusions have been around for about 100 years,” Shevkoplyas said. “When I talk about us essentially developing technology for improving the quality of blood, it’s already safe and effective therapy right now, and it’s saving lives right now, but we can always make it better.”
According to Shevkoplyas’ NIH Project Information description, almost 15 million units of red blood cells are transfused into around five million patients in the United States annually. Over time, as an untransfused blood unit exceeds the FDA allowed storage time, one percent of cells begin to undergo lysis, or break down and up to 25 percent of a unit of blood becomes damaged and therefore, unnecessary in the transfusion process.
“What we’re trying to do in my lab, is to make sure that blood that has been stored for a long period of time is as good when transfused when compared to one stored for a short period of time,” Shevkoplyas said. ”There is always an issue with any medicine. Let’s take even aspirin for example. You have the same tablet. We know it’s safe and effective. You take it, I take it, somebody else takes it, the effect is going to be different.”
According to Shevkoplyas in a press release, the device he is developing will undergo a two-step process. With two tubes linked to a small plastic mechanism, one tube transports the blood into the mechanism while the other administers a saline solution to separate old bio particles and storage solution from the healthy red blood cells.
The next step is to take this mixture and to sift it through engineered microfluidic channels, designed to completely separate healthy red blood cells from everything else. After this process, the blood is then transfused into the patient.
“What we’re essentially trying to do is make blood 100 percent effective, if it’s even possible; we think it is,” Shevkoplyas said. “Blood stored for long periods of time with waste products will be as effective going through our system as blood stored for a short period of time. We’re not touching the collection, processing, or storage of blood.”
