Scientists Can Now Mass-Produce Blood

British scientists have found out how to produce such quantities of artificial blood that it can soon save lives.

Scientists from the University of Bristol in the UK have developed a method for producing thousands of billions of artificial red blood cells. The vital cells, which could solve the lack of donated blood in war-torn areas and disaster regions, can be adapted to patients with rare blood types.

Former methods involved stem cells developing into red blood cells, but they did not allow scientists to make more than 50,000 blood cells per stem cell – much less that what is needed to fill one single blood bag.

The British scientists used the new method to freeze the stem cells at an early stage of development, making them divide almost infinitely. When the stem cells had divided sufficiently, the scientists could finally mature them into complete blood cells.