Next-generation red cell analysers for blood-banking, transfusion medicine, and haematological diagnosis

Introduction

Tissue O2 delivery is essential for life and rate-limiting for activities. Its maintenance is paramount in medical conditions ranging from critical care to anaemia, and a common corrective intervention is blood transfusion, drawing an annual demand of >20 units/1000 people.

Current Diagnostics

Blood tests are routinely performed (2/capita/year in Europe) to measure surrogates of O2-carrying capacity, such as haemoglobin content, driving a global market worth €10B. However, current diagnostics cannot measure the speed of O2 release from red blood cells (RBCs), a parameter as important in determining tissue oxygenation as O2-carrying capacity and particularly labile in haematological disease and blood storage.

New Method Development

To address this unmet need, we developed single-cell oxygen saturation imaging, a method for tracking O2 release from individual RBCs. We demonstrated how O2 unloading depends critically on the shape and metabolic state of RBCs, providing a gauge of the blood’s physiological quality.

Key Findings

Notably, our method described slower O2 unloading in spherocytic anaemias and in banked blood units. To verify significance, we showed how impaired O2 release from stored RBCs reduces oxygenation and respiration in perfused human kidneys.

Target Users

End-users of our technology are:

• Blood banks (quality control, recipient-donor matching, guiding improvements in materials and methods)
• Clinicians (novel haematological traits, transfusion, transplant medicine)

Future Directions

However, further data are required to reaffirm the medical utility and market for our novel parameter. Teaming with engineers and industry, this project will design and assemble three benchtop prototypes of our device for proof-of-concept testing in:

1. A blood bank (UK’s NHSBT)
2. Intensive care (Great Ormond St Hospital)
3. Haematological research (Peru)

Positive experience will make a compelling case for measuring O2 handling.

Ambition

Our ambition is to produce a next-generation haematology analyser as a spin-out, or for acquisition by a major commercial partner.