Queensland researchers’ futuristic work offers new hope to Australians with rare blood types

For a handful of Australians, finding the perfect blood match can be a matter of life and death.

Now, a Brisbane-based team of researchers is offering new hope for families, working towards a futuristic solution to grow blood in a lab at a scale that makes it more accessible.

Joe Fa'agase is part of an ultra-exclusive club.

"I'm one of 14 in Australia with a rare blood type, JK null [aka Jk(a-b-)]," Fa'agase told 9News.

The 32-year-old and his three brothers have the same unusual blood type that requires stock to be stored in case of emergencies.

"We currently have three bags on storage down in Sydney at the rare blood type facility," Fa'agase said.

"I think it can be a little bit concerning sometimes."

For people like Fa’agase, a new $2.5 million collaboration between Australian Red Cross’ Lifeblood and the University of Queensland could one day be a lifeline through the production of lab-grown blood.

Lifeblood researchers are already growing fully functional red blood cells from donor stem cells in the lab but UQ biomedical engineer Dr Mark Allenby said the existing process was expensive and relied on complicated manual techniques.

“They are being transfused into humans,” he told 9News.

"They do work, they are safe, but it's around growing them at a cost that's accessible to people."

Right now it takes three weeks to make just a few teaspoons, at a cost of $70,000 dollars.

"To make this to the scale of 1 trillion red blood cells, you require something similar to a tennis court of culture flasks," Allenby said.

This would put the cost at about $1 million per blood transfusion bag.

"We're trying to approach technologies that could grow the cells 10 to 100 times more cost efficiently," Allenby added.

Professor Simon Cool, CEO of Smart CRC, said the company hopes to be able to deliver them to patients effectively as well.

“If we can manufacture cures for people in Australia, then we can get them to those patients in an accelerated way,” he told 9News.

Patients with rare blood types – from newborns requiring closely matched transfusions to people living in remote areas – have the most to benefit from.

"This gives us an added hope that there's always going to be something on hand," Fa'agase said.

Lifeblood researcher Dr Becky Griffiths said lab-grown blood “would not be to ever replace donations”.

There's still plenty of work to be done with clinical trials at least five years away.