Using enzymes produced by a bacteria that almost everyone has in their gut, researchers have removed the antigens from red blood cells that determine blood type, putting us within reach of producing universal donor blood.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15069736

Bacterial enzyme strips away blood types to create universal donor blood

“Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Lund University, Sweden, have used enzymes produced by a common gut bacteria to remove the A and B antigens from red blood cells, bringing them one step closer to creating universal donor blood.”

  • AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    Man, science communication is in a bad spot if all they’re doing is blunting people’s expectations and, as the previous user very aptly mentioned “yucking everyone’s yum”.

    This is why people make fun of Neal Degrass Tyson, many times his explanations are both pedantic and unnecessary, which I would argue is the same as the comment that started this thread.

    Especially when what they were talking about was actually listed in the article!

    • deranger@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      This “discovery” happened in 2009 as well, and it didn’t change things then. The actual scientific article for this rediscovery also states it doesn’t get work on A antigen, so this is very poorly communicated.

      I’m not yucking anyone’s yum here. It would be great to not have to worry about ABO. This isn’t the discovery that does it, though. This isn’t even really a new discovery, and it doesn’t even work as the layperson article describes.

      Here’s the actual article https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01663-4