Scientists bid to create blood in lab

[John]

The results could provide an unlimited supply of blood for emergency transfusions.

The three-year project will be led by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) and includes NHS Blood and Transplant and the Wellcome Trust, the world's biggest medical research charity.

A spokeswoman for the National Blood Service for England and North Wales said negotiations on the joint research project were at an advanced stage and that legal, rather than scientific, issues were holding up the announcement.

A spokesman for the Wellcome Trust added that complicated legal issues were still being ironed out between all the parties involved but that an announcement was likely to be made in the coming week.

Researchers will test human embryos left over from IVF treatment to find those that are genetically programmed to develop into the "O-negative" blood group, which is the universal donor group whose blood can be transfused into anyone without fear of tissue rejection.

The relatively rare blood group - it is applicable to about 7 per cent of the population - could then be produced in unlimited quantities from embryonic stem cells because of their ability to multiply indefinitely in the laboratory.

The idea of destroying embryos to create stem cells raises ethical issues, but the newspaper reports that, in theory, just one embryo could meet the nation's needs.

[DUKE NUKEM]

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