
Author Archives for Stanford Blood Center


SBC Makes History and Enhances Platelet Safety by Going 100% PRT
May 6, 2021 8:22 am Comments Off on SBC Makes History and Enhances Platelet Safety by Going 100% PRTBy Harry Sussmann, Operational Excellence (OpEx) Director On April 28, Stanford Blood Center became the first blood center of its size in the nation to use pathogen reduction technology, or PRT, on 100% of its transfusable platelets produced. With this...

Why Blood Donation Is Unpaid: A Global Perspective
May 6, 2021 8:22 am Comments Off on Why Blood Donation Is Unpaid: A Global Perspective
Emiliana’s Story: Micro-Preemie Born at 23 Weeks Beats All Odds
May 5, 2021 4:35 pm Comments Off on Emiliana’s Story: Micro-Preemie Born at 23 Weeks Beats All OddsBy Krista Thomas, Communications Strategist In early 2019, Kristi Trog and her husband Josh were thrilled but also surprised to find out that Kristi was pregnant with their first child. The pair counted this news as a true miracle. Though...

SBC Begins Testing Donations for Rare Blood Groups
May 5, 2021 4:34 pm Comments Off on SBC Begins Testing Donations for Rare Blood GroupsBy Dr. Tho Pham, Chief Medical Officer Did you know that many blood group systems exist beyond ABO (A, B, O and AB) and Rh (+ and -)? And that many donors have rare combinations of certain clinically relevant blood...

How COVID-19 May Have Permanently Changed Donor Recruitment
May 5, 2021 4:34 pm Comments Off on How COVID-19 May Have Permanently Changed Donor RecruitmentBy Karen Hendryk, Donor Recruitment Manager Immediate Impact of COVID Though March 2020 was when an official pandemic was declared, February 2020 was when SBC was hit with one of the most significant challenges thus far: cancellation of blood drives....

Ernest’s Story: “How Donating Blood Saved My Life — Twice”
May 5, 2021 1:02 pm Comments Off on Ernest’s Story: “How Donating Blood Saved My Life — Twice”By Krista Thomas, Communications Strategist Ernest Boyd has been giving blood for decades. What started as a way to save the lives of others, however, has saved his own life multiple times. Becoming a Platelet Donor Ernest first really...

COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma
January 15, 2021 5:42 am Comments Off on COVID-19 Convalescent PlasmaIn the start of April 2020, SBC became one of the first blood centers in the nation to create a COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) program. The program, which encouraged recovered COVID-19 patients to donate antibody-rich plasma for current COVID-19 patients,...

Purple Top Tubes: Your Impact on Research
January 14, 2021 11:51 pm Comments Off on Purple Top Tubes: Your Impact on ResearchBy Marino Bozic, Research and Clinical Services Manager When you come in to make a whole blood or apheresis donation at SBC, you may notice the phlebotomists collecting tubes from your donation. One of the tubes you will see drawn...

Next-Generation Sequencing
January 14, 2021 11:41 pm Comments Off on Next-Generation SequencingBy Deepti Sharma, PhD, Clinical Laboratory Scientist; Tamara A. Vayntrub, Project Manager; Bing Melody Zhang, MD, MS, FCAP, Assistant Director, HLA Lab SBC is now using next-generation sequencing (NGS) as the basis for its HLA typing method for both bone...