How many times have you heard that “blood can’t be manufactured”? Well, that belief is about to be swept away by reality. As you read these lines, in the most advanced research laboratories on the planet, scientists are developing blood substitutes that promise to be safer, longer-lasting, and more universally compatible than human blood.
Japan, United Kingdom, United States: The global race to create the first effective synthetic blood has been on for a while now, and the early results are much more promising than you might imagine.
The Red Dust That Can Change Everything
erythromer It sounds like something out of a movie, but it's pure science. This blood substitute, developed at the University of Maryland, comes as a red powder that can be stored for years at room temperature and reconstituted with simple saline solution when needed.
Allan Doctor and his team have solved a problem that has plagued researchers for decades: how to prevent free hemoglobin from becoming toxic to the body. Their solution? Encase human hemoglobin in artificial membranes that control its release, just like natural red blood cells do.
Animal tests have yielded extraordinary results: ErythroMer not only delivers oxygen efficiently, it does so with a precision that traditional blood can only dream of. It can be administered to anyone, regardless of blood type, and it maintains its properties for months without refrigeration.
Japan is betting everything on universal blood
On the other side of the world, researchers at the National Defense Medical College Japan have developed a different but equally promising approach. Their artificial blood combines mini hemoglobin sacs with nanoparticles that mimic the action of platelets.
Manabu Kinoshita, the immunologist who coordinates the research, does not hide his enthusiasm:
"It is always difficult to have sufficient quantities of blood in the most remote regions. With artificial blood we can save lives that would otherwise be lost."
Tests on rabbits with liver lesions they showed a success rate of 60%, equivalent to that of traditional transfusions. But here comes the interesting part: this artificial blood is universal, can be stored for up to a year and can be produced in unlimited quantities.
Blood substitutes, Europe also makes its voice heard with the SynEry project
Europe could not be missing in this technological race. SynEry project, which involves the IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza together with universities in Belgium, Spain and France, is working on advanced lipid vesicles that replicate the characteristics of red blood cells.
Fabrizio Gelain, head of the Nanomedicine Unit, explains that the goal is to create synthetic cells with in vivo applicability. The project, included in the European Union's Innovation Radar, represents one of the most innovative research projects on the continent. And that's not all: work is also being done "just outside" Europe, across the Channel. Yes: because it is the United Kingdom that has taken the boldest step.
UK gets serious: first human trials
Il RESTORE trial, led by NHS Blood and Transplant in collaboration with the University of Bristol, has begun transfusing lab-grown red blood cells directly into humans.
This is not completely artificial blood, but real cells produced by stem cells under controlled conditions. The difference? These red blood cells are all “young,” while those from a natural donor are a mix of cells at various stages of their life.
Il Professor Cedric Ghevaert, who is leading the trial, is optimistic: “We hope that our lab-grown red blood cells will last longer than those that come from blood donors.” If the results, expected by the end of 2025, confirm expectations, we could witness a real turning point.
Blood Substitutes, Ghosts of the Past: When Everything Went Wrong
As you might imagine, not everything is rosy in the history of blood substitutes. Remember the case of hemopure, developed by Biopure Corporation? It was emblematic. This bovine hemoglobin-based substitute seemed promising until 2008, when a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that Patients treated with similar products were 30 percent more likely to die.
The problem? Free hemoglobin caused serious cardiovascular problems. Biopure went bankrupt in 2009, but Zaf Zafirelis, the company's former CEO, still claims that the product was unfairly priced. "Hemopure has saved at least ten patients that I personally know," he says, referring to compassionate uses in the United States. Okay. Back to the present, or rather, the future.
The road today
Today, the situation is different. New blood substitutes have learned from the mistakes of the past and use technologies that were unthinkable at the time. Nanoparticles, controlled encapsulation of hemoglobin, and the production of stem cells represent a huge qualitative leap.
As we have reported in the past, the blood substitute market could reach 16 billion euros in the first five years after commercialization.
It's not just an economic issue: with the world's aging population and the increasing difficulty in finding donors, these products could become indispensable. But for now...
Blood substitutes? Be careful, it's not time to hang up the bags yet
Warning: None of the scientists involved think that blood substitutes will completely replace traditional donations. At least not in the immediate future. Production costs are still high, and the complexity of human blood remains difficult to fully replicate.
Farrukh Shah, director of transfusion at NHS Blood and Transplant, is clear: “Artificial red blood cells will not completely replace donors, who will continue to provide the vast majority of blood.”
But for emergencies, rare blood types, or remote areas of the world, blood substitutes could mean the difference between life and death. And that, frankly, is more than enough to justify all the efforts of global research.
The question is no longer if we will have effective blood substitutes, but when. And judging by the progress of recent years, it may be sooner than we think.
