Artificial blood will soon be tested in the UK for the first time. New Scientist takes a look at how – and why – this blood is made.
What is artificial blood?
Blood substitutes aim to replicate one particular job of real blood: supplying oxygen to tissues. In other words, the goal is to find an alternative to oxygen-carrying red blood cells that could be used for transfusions. Today, the UK National Health Service announced it plans to start transfusing people with artificial blood by 2017 – the first clinical trials of this kind anywhere in the world.
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