Haemoglobin-based oxygen carrier HBOC-201 is, in a word (or two), artificial blood – it delivers oxygen to your squishy organs. And, unlike real blood, it can be stored for years and doesn’t require matching blood types.
After years of working pretty well in clinical trials, it’s now saved a life for the first the time – it just brought back a woman whose car wreck was so brutal it left just a liter of blood in her body, and whose religion prevented her from receiving a real blood transfusion.
The future is here, and it’s synthetic blood and organs and tiny people grown in laboratories. Oh and maybe sexy, sexy vampires. [News.com.au]