Bacteria that alters your blood type

BACTERIA could be used to turn all blood types into one suitable for all transfusions.

Blood cells from A and B blood groups have different sugar coatings, which trigger an immune response if the blood types are mixed. Type O blood has no sugar coating, so it is a ‘universal donor’.

But University of British Columbia scientists have found a way to make type A universal.

The same sugars that coat some blood cells are also produced in our gut, where enzymes in gut bacteria break them down. By harvesting these enzymes and combining them with type A blood, they removed the sugars and turned it into type O.