In September 2024 Dr Chloë George qualified as a Consultant Clinical Scientist, the first in transfusion medicine at the Welsh Blood Service.
Her project looked at platelet metabolism in cold-stored environments and compared that to platelets stored at standard room temperature.
Platelets need energy to perform their function in the body and the idea was to see whether when they are stored at cold temperatures, the platelets go into a form of stasis where they are not using much energy which could facilitate longer storage periods.
This research was performed with platelets from apheresis donors, and corroborated research done by others around the world – bio-energetic profiles didn’t show significant difference between cold-stored and room temperature stored platelets when taken from one donor, despite other metabolic markers suggesting that the cold slowed metabolism.
The next step is to test cold-stored pooled platelets using combined platelets from four donors which is the usual process for manufacturing platelet donations.
It is hoped that in the future the WBS will head up a clinical trial to test the use of cold-stored platelets in the pre-hospital environment in collaboration with the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Services (EMRTS).