Manufacturing a lab-grown solution for complex blood needs

Technology to enable efficient production of lab-grown blood is being developed as a potentially life-saving future alternative to donated blood for a small percentage of the population with unique transfusion needs.

The University of Queensland will partner with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood on the project enabled by the SMART CRC, which brings industry, research and government together to collaborate on regenerative therapy solutions.

Lifeblood can already grow fully functional red blood cells in the lab, but UQ biomedical engineer Dr Mark Allenby said the existing process was expensive and relied on complicated manual techniques.

"We are aiming to create a production system to produce higher yields of quality red blood cells for less cost, by reengineering the current manufacturing process,” Dr Allenby said.

“By using advanced technologies to improve how cells are grown, separated and scaled up, we aim to make lab-grown blood more accessible to patients who need an alternative to donated blood.”

Global challenge 

Lifeblood researcher Dr Becky Griffiths is leading the project, and said matching patients with rare blood types to compatible donated blood was a complex challenge for blood services globally.

“Some people have extremely rare blood types and there might only be a few donors in the whole country with that blood type,” Dr Griffiths said.

“It currently takes 3 weeks to produce just a teaspoon, so that shows the scale of the challenge in increasing production to the point where we could grow a full bag of blood.

"If we can grow blood for people with rare blood types – for whom there are very few donors – that would be very exciting.

“For now, it is critical that we recruit more donors of mixed ethnic heritage to donate, as fewer than 3 per cent of the population currently donate blood.”

SMART solution

SMART CRC Chief Executive Officer Professor Simon Cool said the $2.5 million collaboration would help build the manufacturing capabilities for niche blood products, as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.

“The SMART CRC exists to accelerate the translation of therapies and technologies to create meaningful benefits to Australian patients,” he said. 

“By bringing Lifeblood and UQ together with the SMART CRC, we are excited to support the development of technology that could help meet the needs of patients with rare blood types who may struggle to find a compatible donor match.”

Dr Allenby said the manufacturing processes developed through this project could also support production of other emerging cell therapies like stem-cell and immune-based treatments. 

“We can dream up incredible new therapies and treatments, but if manufacturing is inefficient and costly, they are out of reach for most people.

“By engineering smarter and more efficient manufacturing processes, we can help bring costs down and make these treatments more accessible to patients who need them.”