Researchers receive grant to study transfusion safety

The Virginia Blood Foundation has awarded an $86,000 grant to Kenji Cunnion, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, and Neel Krishna, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Cell Biology. The money will fund their research on a new method to evaluate risk for negative transfusion reactions.

If incompatible blood is given in a transfusion, the patient's immune system attacks the donor cells. Not only is the blood transfusion rendered useless, but it could cause shock, kidney failure, circulatory collapse and death.

They believe their method, Complement Hemolysis Using Human Erythrocytes, can enhance transfusion safety by more accurately assessing the risk of those reactions as compared to current methods.