Researchers develop new weapon for hard-to-treat bacterial infections
Researcher Bob Hancock made an important discovery in the fight against superbugs, while his team was looking for a solution to abscesses, a condition where patients develop reoccurring fluid-filled pockets that don’t respond well to traditional antibiotic treatments.
Red Blood Cell masquerade: polymer-mediated immunocamouflage provides Rh D antigen-safe blood
Li Li, a postdoctoral fellow from Mark Scott’s lab at the CBR, along with her colleagues developed a technique to reduce the risk of acute immune response in blood transfusions from D+ donors to D- recipients.
The Pryzdial Lab Advances a Novel Clot-Dissolving Drug
After two decades of major clinical trials aimed at improving the safety of clot-dissolving drugs, the Pryzdial lab marks a new strategy to dissolve clots based on a novel biochemical pathway they discovered.
Minimizing Treatment Times for Beta-thalassemia Major: a Small Solution with Potential for Big Impact
Jasmine Hamilton from Kizhakkedathu group developed a scaffold for delivering an iron chelator treatment, reducing the number of injections beta-thalassemia major patients could require from 10 per day to 1 per week.
Cautiously Rethinking Pathogen Inactivation Technology – Selective Effects on Platelet
Christa Klein-Bosgoed, a PhD candidate in Dr. Dana Devine’s laboratory at the CBR, is soon to have a paper in Transfusion on how Pathogen Inactivation-treatment affects platelet units prepared for transfusion.
The Story of Beta-thalassemia: Blood, the Sea, and a Bluebird
Though blood transfusions, iron chelation therapy, folic acid supplementation, and stem cell transplantation can be used to treat thalassemia, gene-therapy sparks much attention to be a potential treatment option for beta-thalassemia major patients.
Christian Kastrup’s Team Leads the Way Towards a More Stable Blood Clot
Alternative mechanisms to increase clot adhesion are needed. PhD candidate Karen Chan from Dr. Kastrup’s lab found therapeutic use of using a synthetic polymer to stabilize a blood clot.
Host Defense Peptides
Dr. Hancock’s lab published a review in Nature Reviews establishing that host defense peptides, in addition to having direct antimicrobial effects, also play an important role in immune modulation, wound healing, and diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.
Dr. Scott Modifies Red Blood Cells to Make Transfusion Possible in Patients with Rare Blood Types
When a person is in dire need of blood, a blood transfusion seems like a simple solution. A donor donates blood, and eventually a patient in need receives it. Yet, in reality this life-saving medical procedure, as safe as it may be, is not that simple.
Research Reveals the Takeover of Blood Platelets by Dengue Virus
New research from Dr. Ed Pryzdial laboratory has revealed for the first time that dengue – the most common virus spread by mosquitoes -hijacks blood platelets and commandeers machinery inside the platelets to reproduce itself.