Blood transfusions are highly important. But, is the future of finding a blood match going to be manufactured in a lab?

‍What’s happening:‍

• Pre-clinical blood cell therapy startup Safi Biotherapeutics has raised $5M USD in seed funding
  
• The round was led by prominent deep tech venture capital fund J2 Ventures
  

The big idea:‍

• Safi Biotherapeutics has developed innovative technology that is capable of producing bio-manufactured red blood cells that contain targeted immune-phenotypes for chronic transfusion indications such as sickle-cell disease and chemo-therapy related anemia
  
• The manufactured red blood cells are grown from stem cells sources and are capable of being produced in sufficient quantity for full blood transfusions for patients
  

Why it matters:‍

• The United States Department of Defense originally backed Safi Biotherapeutics as part of their On-Demand Blood Program and have helped advance their technology with continual funding
  
• Many patients who require regular blood transfusions begin to develop immune system responses to multiple blood antigens which can severely complicate the process of finding a specific blood match or reliable donor
  

By the numbers:‍

• Since inception, the United States Department of Defense has put $15M USD into Safi Biotherapeutics
  

Going deeper:‍

• Scientific researchers and academics have been experimenting with growing red blood cells from stem cell sources for a long time, however the main challenge has always been reliably producing enough red blood cells to actually perform a transfusion and doing so in a cost efficient way
  
• Startups focused on new technology around blood have continued to attract significant venture capital excitement, with OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman previously backing a new blood testing startup and the European Innovation Council fund previously getting involved with a startup using autonomous robots to draw blood

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