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posted by martyb on Friday May 01 2015, @03:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-yet-ready-for-primetime dept.

If they succeed in doing this, it would be very useful in times of crisis, especially, during natural disasters like the earthquake in Nepal.

At some point in your life, you've probably been asked to donate blood. If your blood is type O, you may have been asked to donate even more, because your blood type is the most useful and is less common. The difference between blood types may seem small--people with blood types A and B have an extra sugar molecule bound to the surface of their red blood cells--but a transfusion of the wrong blood type can be fatal. For example, the immune system of a type O individual will launch a massive attack on the "invading cells" of a type A individual, all because it detects that sugar molecule.

Now researchers from the University of British Columbia have figured out a way to change the type of blood donated by volunteers, by using an enzyme that simply snips off that extra sugar, called an antigen. The result: The blood is more like type O, the universal donor.

This isn't the first time that researchers have produced blood with fewer antigens in the lab, but this attempt has worked better than any other. The researchers used a technique called directed evolution; they used bacteria to create the enzyme and inserted particular mutations in the bacteria's DNA to make the enzyme even more powerful. After cultivating the bacteria over five generations, the enzyme became 170 times more effective.

http://www.popsci.com/scientists-figure-out-how-change-blood-types

[Abstract]: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja5116088

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Friday May 01 2015, @02:05PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Friday May 01 2015, @02:05PM (#177466) Journal

    It sounds like the ones killing babies are the ones disallowing payment. If blood givers were paid market rates for rare types, the monetary incentive would ensure adequate supply. Everyone else in the blood chain is getting paid, why not the source?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @06:36PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @06:36PM (#177560)

    People desperate for money may try to find ways to give blood when they really physically can't afford it. Sure there are supposed to be tests and requirements to prevent that but people will find ways around them especially when money is involved (that's not to say it doesn't already happen). Also there should be a minimum age requirement (not sure if there is), someone should be an adult (ie: to avoid guardians using children to get money in that way).