Blood is a very special fluid with multiple tasks like transporting oxygen to the body cells. In situations like an accident or surgery, a person might suffer from severe blood loss and needs replacement – a so called transfusion. In case of a shortage of transfusion blood, there are currently no alternative replacement fluids that can perform the same tasks as blood. Besides, some medical products need to be tested with blood to ensure their safety. This is often done with slaughterhouse blood, but a standardized artificial fluid that could replace blood would ensure greater accuracy of test results. We hence aim at developing artificial blood that can at least transport oxygen and CO2 like real blood. We will do this in three steps:
1. Production of artificial red blood cells (the oxygen carriers in real blood), but on a larger scale: human red blood cells have a diameter of about 0.008 mm, but we will start with 0.05 mm to test their properties first.
2. We will give them the right shape: real erythrocytes have a discus-like shape.
3. Production of artificial cells in the right size.
All steps are accompanied by thorough tests of the correct function of our artificial blood.