Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Red Blood Cells (RBCs) have some particularly unusual characteristics for a cell. For one, they have a biconcave shape, giving both sides a “scooped-in” appearance....
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Once upon a time (from early Greek and Roman physicians to the late 19th century), “blood-letting,” now known as phlebotomy, was a very popular practice...
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Well, think of a little red blood cell (RBC) in 3D with lots of tiny little hairs sticking out of it. Type A people have...
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center When your heart is all aflutter, who do you resemble most? Romeo & Juliet? Lady Chatterley? Anais Nin and half of Paris? Or possibly a...
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center This is one of several questions that we’re often asked by community members. Our ABO (blood type) identity, whether we’re O, A, B, or AB,...
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center What does that mean?? Is there a blizzard coming? Cyclone? Mongoose? Groundhogs don’t even see very well so who knows why we rely on them...
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Here’s something interesting about blood types. Humans have 8 major blood types (although we also have hundreds of lesser-known mutations or alleles that are very...
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Did you ever wonder what plasma and sea water have in common? Considering it’s our “inner ocean” and that life may have originated in the...
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Cat blood is designated as either type A, type B, and rarely type AB. Type A is the most common blood type comprising 90-95% of...
Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center A unit of red blood cells (RBCs) expires in 35 or 42 days because of the type of anticoagulant in the bag. But in real...