This Black History Month, we are thrilled to celebrate the accomplishments of Charles Drew, a Black doctor who broke down barrier after barrier on his mission to help patients and eventually become the “father of blood centers.” Charles Drew was born to a middle-class family in 1904 in Washington, D.C. Growing up, his parents impressed…

Last year, donor Ben Brian hit an incredible milestone with SBC: his 500th donation. When asked what motivates him to give blood, among the usual answer of service to others and the free cookies, Ben mentioned that he has been consistently motivated by the dedication of his wife, Gail. Gail is also a milestone donor,…

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Dr. King’s dedication to achieving racial equality and the tremendous impact he had on civil rights are not something to be taken lightly. Though he was well known for his eloquent speeches, Dr. King was also an organizer and a man of action, willing to put his own comfort…

In 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, gained national media attention and led to over a thousand community members offering to donate….

By 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 is a purple (or lavender) top K2 EDTA tube. What is a purple top K2…

By 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 marrow and stem cell as well as solid organ transplants. The testing has already made…

Dr. Edgar Engleman is the founding Medical Director of Stanford Blood Center (SBC), as well as Professor of Pathology and Medicine at Stanford University. Over the course of his career, Dr. Engleman’s passion for supporting patients has fueled accomplishments that have radically transformed the blood industry and patient care. In particular, his unrivaled understanding of…

It’s hard to believe that for the bulk of 2019, Katy Crain knew very little about cancer. She considered herself lucky to have never had any close family members affected by it, and while she was sympathetic to cancer patients and had donated blood before, the concept seemed removed from her everyday life. All of…

Dr. Sam P. Most, Chief of the Division of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford Health Care (SHC) and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, is not only an accomplished and beloved member of the Stanford community; he is also a dedicated husband in his familial life and a very health, very active…

To help paint a clearer picture of how the challenges of 2020 affected teams all around the Blood Center, we asked team members to tell us, in a few sentences, what being an SBC team member in 2020 meant to them.  “Last year was my 21st year working in SBC’s Processing Laboratory, which performs tests…

August 22, 1950 – May 18, 2020 It is with deep sadness that we inform our donor community of the passing of one of our charge nurses, Susan Belanger, on May 18, 2020. For nearly 20 years, Susan, Sue B., Belanger was an integral part of the SBC collections team. She left an indelible impression…

The below is a Q&A with Blood Drive Coordinator Jim Gardner of Good Karma Bikes. Q: How long have you been holding blood drives with SBC, and what first made you become a Blood Drive Coordinator (BDC)? A: I’ve been a BDC since 2016 with Good Karma Bikes. I’ve also been a donor myself for…