Joanna Crews
Terumo BCT has received a three-year grant from the Defense Department to study the effectiveness of a new medical technology to cut the risk of bloodborne pathogen transmission in military personnel.
The company said Wednesday it will use the funds awarded through DoD’s Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program to further develop the Mirasol pathogen reduction technology.
“This new grant extends our efforts with Terumo BCT to help us further explore increasing blood processing and pathogen reduction efficiencies,” said Col. Audra Taylor, director of the U.S. Army Blood Program.
Taylor added that warfighter preparedness requires a ready and safe supply of blood products for globally deployed beneficiaries.
Terumo BCT aims to develop a next-generation Mirasol that will work to diminish pathogens in the blood before fractionation to accelerate the blood donation to transfusion process.
The system if designed to use riboflavin/vitamin B2 with ultraviolet light to curtail the pathogen load of disease-causing viruses, bacteria and parasites in blood components for transfusion, the company noted.
Terumo BCT offers blood component, cellular technologies, therapeutic apheresis collections, manual and whole blood processing and pathogen reduction technologies.
