DARPA HAS ARTIFICIAL BLOOD; CULLEN FAMILY STOCK UPGRADED TO ‘BUY’

A few years ago, DARPA teamed up with a company called Arteriocyte to research methods for manufacturing blood without an actual donor on-hand, and whaddya know — a million and change tax dollars later, here we are. You no doubt remember stem cells. Well, they’re back in a major way (did they really ever leave?), and this time instead of clogging up the Supreme Court’s backlog they’re helping manufacture blood that is “functionally indistinguishable” from the real type-O. “Pharmed” blood (their word, not ours) will eventually be a godsend for troops in the field, where fresh blood often takes three weeks to arrive from the source. But don’t cancel all your donor appointments just yet — eBlood (our word, not theirs) won’t be ready for human testing until 2013. And pints still cost more than a bottle of Johnny Walker’s finest — around $5,000, and that’s before they factor in the cookies and apple juice they gave the umbilical cord for its time and patience.

DARPA has artificial blood; Cullen family stock upgraded to ‘buy’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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