Bioengineering blood cells for managing non-compressible hemorrhage

Non-compressible hemorrhage accounts for high mortality globally. Traditional tourniquets and wound dressings cannot apply to the internal and non-compressible bleeding sites. Currently, transfusion of blood remains the clinical “gold standard”, but has the issues of limited availability, short shelf-life, and high cost. There is an unmet need for the prevention or point-of-care treatment of non-compressible hemorrhage. We propose to engineer the abundant red blood cells (RBCs) into universal and pro-hemostatic multitasking cells, which can be circulated long in blood as prophylactic treatment or administrated intravenously to halt non-compressible hemorrhage. Our strategy is to form a smart and ultrathin hydrogel sheath anchored to RBCs. Upon bleeding, engineered RBCs will rapidly link with each other, form a RBC gel, seal the wound and stop bleeding. The proposed work would benefit broad populations such as patients suffering from coagulopathy, individuals with rare blood types, and soldiers in the battlefield, and has great socio-economic impact.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jianyu Li

Student:

Partner:

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

McGill University

Program: