For the third time in five years, the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta is home to the winner of the International Society for Cryobiology's top student award.
Master's student Ruqayyah Almizraq, who is doing her work with Jason Acker in the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, picked up the Peter L. Steponkus Crystal Award for her oral presentation at the society's international meeting in Argentina.
"It was a shock for me," said Almizraq who is currently writing her thesis and hopes to defend in October. "I'm so happy to have won this award. It's a really prestigious award, which was amazing for me."
"I think this really reflects the excellence we're doing in the preservation sciences and cryobiology," said her supervisor, Acker. "It's quite an honour."
Almizraq presented on work which looked at the effects that a biochemical rejuvenation solution has on stored blood. Donated blood can only be stored for 42 days. For years, scientists have been injecting red blood cells with a biochemical rejuvenation solution late in the storage process. This was thought to improve the membranes of red blood cells. Almizraq's work shows that this process actually has no benefits for the blood.
"This work allows for in-depth understanding of red blood cells during preservation and storage, and provides insight into the causes of the hypothermic storage lesion," said Almizraq. "This work will help us for our next approaches to develop an effective preservation for blood products."
"What we're really trying to do is enhance the quality of the blood products so when it is transfused it does what we need it to do," said Acker. "Right now there is a lot of research that is really focusing on the membrane of the red blood cell - specifically, changes that occur to the membrane, as that change is responsible for some negative clinical findings that have been reported over the last few years."
Acker's lab is continuing work in this area, including work with nano-fabricated liposomes which could prove very beneficial in the storage process. Almizraq is hoping to complete her PhD in the area.