Whales could help solve synthetic human blood mystery

A study recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, details how whales could provide the answer to the chronic lack of spare human blood stored in banks across the world.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 100 million blood donations are made each year but that is still not enough. One solution would be to create synthetic blood, but this option has remained a distant one. However, thanks to new research on deep-diving whales, scientists think they may be a step nearer to making lab-made haemoglobin – the protein molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen to other parts of the body.

I seems that the deep diving abilities of whales, and the fact that they are capable of storing far more oxygen than humans, could eventually point the way to the creation of synthetic blood for human use.