UK – Lab-grown red blood cells used for human transfusions in world-first clinical trial

Blood cells grown in a laboratory have been transfused into patients in a world-first clinical trial carried out by a team of UK researchers.

It is hoped the approach could ‘revolutionise’ treatments for people with blood disorders such as sickle cell disease and rare blood types who require regular long-term blood transfusions

The RESTORE trial is a joint research initiative by the universities of Bristol and Cambridge, NHS trusts and NHS Blood and Transplant.

The manufactured blood is grown from stem cells from donated blood, which are stimulated to expand into large numbers of red blood cells in the lab – a process that takes about three weeks.