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The Cardinal Edge

Program/Event

Undergraduate Research Showcase Spring 2025

Abstract

In emergencies such as natural disasters, armed conflicts, or during outer space missions, the availability of transfusable blood can mean the difference between life and death. Red blood cells (RBCs) must be stored at +4 ± 2 °C and have a shelf life of just 42 days, which makes maintaining a stable blood supply during adverse conditions extraordinarily challenging. This challenge was especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic when hospitals faced severe blood shortages. Freeze-drying, or lyophilization, offers a promising avenue to extend the shelf life of RBCs for transfusion during crises. However, a significant hurdle in dry preservation is hemolysis, or the degradation of RBC membranes, rendering the cells unsuitable for transfusion. To address this, our study aimed to inhibit RBC hemolysis during freeze-drying by developing improved RBC lyophilization buffers using a differential evolution (DE) algorithm. The DE algorithm adjusts and refines a given set of variables, such as compound concentrations, buffer pH, etc., to achieve optimized outcomes. This method builds on successful outcomes over several generations, effectively solving complex multivariate problems, such as creating a procedure for dry RBC preservation. RBCs were suspended in various DE algorithm-generated buffers, lyophilized, and then rehydrated for analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of the formulations. Our results demonstrated 0% hemolysis in some DE-generated buffers. Furthermore, the multivariate statistics highlighted catechins as key stabilizing agents, suggesting their potential to protect RBC membranes during lyophilization. These findings provide a strong foundation for future studies on the role of catechin in long-term biological preservation.

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