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These Artificial Blood Platelets Could One Day Save Lives
Platelets help blood clot, but they have a short shelf life. With blood in short supply, synthetic platelets could help meet demand.
Matthew Neal, a trauma and general surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says replicating the functions of a natural platelet has been a challenge, but after decades of research, the idea of a synthetic substitute is getting closer to reality. “Synthetic alternatives that could be frozen or even stored at room temperature in a liquid or freeze-dried form and remain functional when transfused would be a great advance,” says Keith McCrae, a spokesperson for the American Society of Hematology and an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute. The platelets developed by the North Carolina team have yet to be tested in people, but Brown and her colleagues have cofounded a startup called SelSym Biotech to advance their product to clinical trials.
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