University of Alberta biologist Dr. Lisa Willis and her interdisciplinary team have received $24 million from the federal government's New Frontiers in Research Fund to make Canada’s blood supply more resilient and equitable.
The goal of the project is to allow more Canadians to give and receive blood, says Willis, removing systemic barriers that often prevent some people from donating.
“This investment will help us better understand how to engage new and diverse communities of donors while advancing research aimed at developing the next generation of blood products, including innovative technologies that could make blood products universally compatible,” says Dr. Graham D. Sher, chief executive officer of Canadian Blood Services.
Community-based research with youth and racialized communities who are under-represented in the blood supply, and recipients is a critical part of this project, says Willis. This will be led by team members Dr. Kelly Holloway and Dr. Jennie Haw, who are social scientists with Canadian Blood Services and experts in donation studies.
Central to this research is a partnership with Biba Tinga, president and executive director of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Canada, a recognized community leader whose long-standing advocacy and pioneering community-based research with Dr. Haw identified barriers to blood donation. Tinga’s leadership will help ensure the project is informed by the lived experiences and perspectives of Black communities.
“We want to think about responsible innovation, and how we work with communities in order to increase donations.”
Team member Dr. Jeannie Callum, a hematologist at Queen’s University and president of the Canadian Transfusion Trials Group, says the research will “disrupt current attitudes and technologies in blood products.”
“We will address obstacles so that young and racialized communities can donate blood. And we will better match blood for patients from vulnerable populations as we move towards universal blood.”
Willis’s team includes co-principal investigator Dr. Warren Wakarchuk, also of the Faculty of Science, and Dr. Jason Acker of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. The three have been successful so far in rejuvenating red blood cells to make them more universally acceptable, avoiding the need to match transfusions according to type.
“We coat them with a biodegradable natural sugar that’s already in our bodies, so the immune system can no longer see it,” says Willis. “The idea is that you can then give blood from any person to any other person and there would no longer be a need for matching.”
The team will perform a safety trial to support advanced red blood cell and platelet technologies using improved enzymes that will also be important for nanomedicine and other cell-based therapies, says Acker.
“Surgeries will no longer be cancelled because a compatible unit can’t be found, and trauma patients will no longer receive mismatched blood in emergencies.”
If successful, the team’s innovations could be applied around the world, says Willis, making Canada a global centre of expertise.
“Together, these efforts have the potential to strengthen Canada’s blood system, help meet the needs of patients for years to come, and innovate entirely new technologies and new blood products,” says Sher.
“Addressing global health challenges is about bringing people together across disciplines,” says Dr. Aminah Robinson Fayek, U of A vice-president of research. “This major investment highlights the University of Alberta’s commitment to interdisciplinary research, uniting biological science, medicine and community expertise.”