Innovating Medicine: The Journey Toward Artifical Blood

Published on The Elm Weekly | April 10, 2024

The latest episode of “The UMB Pulse Podcast” was released Friday, April 5.

This episode of “The UMB Pulse” podcast features Allan Doctor, MD, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who was the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) David J. Ramsay Entrepreneur of the Year in 2022. Doctor also is the co-founder and chief scientific officer at KaloCyte, a company focused on developing freeze-dried, powdered synthetic blood designed to save lives in emergency situations where traditional blood transfusions are not viable. 

Doctor outlines the imperative need for an easily transportable and universally usable blood substitute for scenarios such as accidents or battlefield injuries, where immediate blood replacement can make the difference between life and death. The podcast explores the science of blood, the challenges of creating a stable and biologically compatible blood substitute, and the potential applications beyond emergency medicine. The episode also delves into Doctor’s background, the support from UMB and various grants including substantial funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the future of artificial blood research at the University of Maryland BioPark.

Listen to “The UMB Pulse” on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and wherever you like to listen. “The UMB Pulse” is now also on YouTube.

Read more information on KaloCyte and other UM Ventures start up successes here.