In June, David Polnaszek hit a special milestone with Stanford Blood Center when he made his 600th blood donation at our Menlo Park donor center. The 73-year-old Portola Valley resident has been doing his part to help save countless lives long before iPhones and even color TV… a conscious decision that was inspired by his hero. “Donating blood…

Summer is (finally) approaching, and while that brings fun in the sun with beach days and BBQs, it also means the start of our summer blood need at Stanford Blood Center (SBC). As you may know, summer is a particularly difficult time for blood donation. Appointments to donate often drop during the summer months because…

Mother’s Day was this past weekend, and we hope you enjoyed your time with the mothers in your life! Although the day may have passed, we want to continue to appreciate moms all over by taking a moment to celebrate some of the mothers touched by blood donation that we have had the privilege to get…

Did you know that when you give blood with Stanford Blood Center (SBC), you’re not only helping local patients today, but you may also be contributing to medical research that will benefit the patients of tomorrow? During the platelet donation process for instance, white blood cells — which are not suitable for transfusion and are...

It’s time for another Volunteer Spotlight! Stanford Blood Center would be nothing without our volunteers, so it is our pleasure to help you get to know one of our wonderful helpers, former SBC Collections Manager Chiqui Lopez-Tecson. Why do you volunteer at SBC? It is an excellent organization to spend some of my time with,…

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…