Potential: no blood shortage
Growing blood in the lab potentially means the end of both blood shortages and blood donations. No one will ever die for lack of blood, rare groups like AB-negative will no longer be rare, and no one will ever contract HIV or Hepatitis C from an infected donor.
What still needs to be done
Only a few lab-grown cells contain mature versions of globin, the critical compound that carries oxygen in red blood cells. Researchers are trying to produce more adult globin by leaving the cells longer to mature. Also, it could take thousands of dollars to grow a single unit of blood in the lab.
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