Look into the Future

Transfusion Medicine

Research Opportunity		Forecast
Enhancement of blood transfusion practices: Develop measures to better assess parameters for transfusion (e.g., oxygenation, hemostasis) and the quality of blood components prior to transfusion, and to improve blood administration practices		Optimal blood utilization: Prevention of overtransfusion and undertransfusion; improvement of efficacy; prevention of adverse effects
Surveillance for emerging pathogens In vitro manipulation of blood products		Safety of the blood supply: Prevention of pathogen transmission and adverse effects of leukocytes (e.g., transfusion-associated graft-vs-host disease) Artificial blood substitute
Investigation of plasticity and commitment of multipotential stem cells		Development of tissue engineering (e.g., liver cell/organs, neuronal cells, cardiac valves, muscle)
Identification of cytokines and chemokines in hematopoietic development		Advances in collection, storage differentiation, and ex vivo expansion of stem cells for transfusion, transplantation, and gene therapies
Mechanisms of alloimmunization to blood cells and plasma proteins: Approaches to tolerance induction to allogenic cells used for transplantation/transfusion; masking of blood group antigens		Treatment/prevention of ineffective/refractory transfusions; prevention or blunting of graft-vs-host disease; prevention of hemolytic disease of the newborn and hemolytic transfusion reactions
Immunobiology of bone marrow and circulating lymphocytes		Development of novel cellular therapies: defined T cells specific for immunotherapy for tumor or pathogens, progenitor cell populations with enhanced engraftment and minimal graft-vs-host disease

Authors: Leslie E. Silberstein, MD, Harvard Medical School; Pearl Toy, MD, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco