Beginning January 8, we expanded our collections to include plasma products drawn on the ALYX machine. The ALYX machine is an apheresis machine that separates and collects various blood components and returns what we aren’t using to the donor — if you’ve done a double red blood cell (DRBC) donation, then you’ve donated through the…

Tracking the Epidemic In 2016, the world was in the midst of a Zika outbreak, with the largest occurring in 2016 in Brazil and Columbia. The graph below shows the distribution of Zika cases in Central America, the Caribbean, and South America from 2015–2017. Source: Data provided by countries and territories of the Americas and...

Everyone knows December is the season of giving, but the needs of our community extend past the holiday season. This January, you can help save patients and pets; January 1 – 31 donate blood and help shelter animals at Humane Society Silicon Valley. At Stanford Blood Center (SBC), we know how lucky we are to have…

Our generous donors and community members often ask how they can support our efforts in times of need, or help to raise awareness about blood donation in general. Now you can help us encourage your closest friends and family to become donors just like you! Check out our social media toolkit, where you can download...

In addition to providing blood products for local patients, Stanford Blood Center is committed to providing blood products for research. Researchers use these products to make breakthrough discoveries and help the patients of tomorrow. One way we are doing this is through our Genetic Sequencing Study. Genetic sequencing ­– which means reading sequences of DNA, the…

In addition to providing blood products to use for transfusion and transplants, Stanford Blood Center (SBC) also collects blood products that play a major role in advancing medicine through research. Unlike most blood centers, we use every single part of your donation, including parts of your blood that might not be directly transfused into a…

As most of you know, in addition to providing lifesaving blood products for local patients, Stanford Blood Center is deeply committed to research initiatives to help the patients of tomorrow. On the forefront of much of this research is our Histocompatability, Immunogentics, and Disease Profiling Lab (the HLA Lab), who focuses on histocompatibility and genetic testing…

Did you know that nearly 75% of our donors live in the South Bay? In an effort to make blood donation as easy and convenient as possible for all of our donors, we are excited to announce that our newest blood donation center location has officially opened in Campbell! It has been quite a journey...

Stanford Blood Center (SBC) has been asked by a sister blood center in Florida to help support a two-year-old girl with an extremely rare blood type. Zanaib has a form of cancer that has required several rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. She now requires a rare type of blood that is negative…

Think about the last time you gave blood. Did you notice all the complicated-looking machines throughout donor center? We’re sure most of you have, so we thought we’d share a bit about what each of them do (including some of the cool ones you don’t get to see). Keep reading for a glimpse at the…

Your Rh status (positive or negative) is determined by an antigen found on your red blood cells (RBCs). Being Rh-positive or Rh-negative means that either you have the Rhesus D antigen on your RBCs (positive) or you don’t (negative). Rh status is inherited from our parents, separately from our blood type. If you inherit the…

Every year, 15,780 children in the United States are diagnosed with cancer. In fact, according to Children’s Cancer Research Fund, each day, 43 families in the United States will hear that their child has cancer. That’s why we observe September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month – to increase awareness for types of cancer that affect…