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ASH establishes new blood reference ranges for Duffy-null individuals

ASH has developed new reference ranges for children and adults with Duffy-null status, a common genetic trait associated with naturally lower circulating white blood cell counts that affects more than 66% of people with African or Mediterranean ancestry in the US.

5 Nov 2026

UCLA advances CRISPR gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease

A UCLA-led team has described how they advanced an experimental CRISPR approach for sickle cell disease into a blood stem cell therapy that can be manufactured at the scale and quality required for a clinical trial.

4 Nov 2026

A study of 27,000 adults links bean products and soy compounds to lower kidney disease odds

A cross-sectional study of 27,003 adults in Northeast China found that higher consumption of processed bean products and soy isoflavones was associated with lower odds of chronic kidney disease, while plain bean intake showed no significant association. The relationship with soy isoflavones was stronger in women, although the observational findings cannot establish whether these foods protect against kidney disease.

4 Nov 2026

Study reveals how breast milk sugar may help protect infants against jaundice

A new study by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine sheds light on the role of breast milk in supporting intestinal development and preventing hyperbilirubinemia, a condition in which bilirubin, a waste product from broken-down red blood cells, builds up in the blood and causes yellowing of the skin and eyes known as jaundice.

3 Nov 2026

Engineered albumin could lead to needle-free, long-lasting protein medicines

Protein-based medicines have transformed the treatment of many diseases, but they often come with a limitation: they must be injected, sometimes repeatedly, because they are rapidly cleared from the bloodstream.

28 Oct 2026

Half-matched bone marrow transplants show high survival in young aplastic anemia patients

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins Children's Center report that bone marrow transplant using half-matched family donors achieved a 96% survival rate among children, adolescent, and young adult patients with severe aplastic anemia, a rare, life-threatening disorder in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough healthy blood cells.

22 Oct 2026

Scientists discover water-triggered reactions that may explain microplastic harm

Researchers found that six common types of microplastics spontaneously generate reactive oxygen species at their interfaces with water, with more hydrophobic plastics showing greater chemical activity. Laboratory experiments also linked these surface properties to biomolecular adsorption, protein aggregation, and mouse red blood cell damage, although the implications for human health remain uncertain.

15 Oct 2026

A trick from tardigrades could help human blood withstand freezing

Tardigrades, also called water bears, are famous for their ability to survive nearly anything. They protect themselves in extreme environments using proteins that researchers have developed into an efficient and effective strategy to preserve human red blood cells.

10 Oct 2026

Routine blood test may offer clues to future dementia risk

A common blood test already carried out during routine health checks may contain clues about a person's long-term risk of dementia, according to research being presented at the ECNP Congress in Munich and recently published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

9 Oct 2026

Hydroxyurea does not increase infection risk in children with sickle cell anemia

Children living with sickle cell anemia have no higher incidence of clinically diagnosed infections when treated with hydroxyurea.

8 Oct 2026

Blood protein patterns may help explain pain levels in sickle cell disease

A small pilot study led by a Rutgers researcher has found differences in blood proteins between people experiencing high and low levels of pain from sickle cell disease, findings that may inform research on new treatments and better pain management.

6 Oct 2026

Electronic sensor detects early Parkinson’s markers in blood

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in collaboration with the University of Oxford have developed a blood-based electronic sensor capable of detecting molecular signatures associated with Parkinson’s disease.

6 Oct 2026

Label-free microfluidic chip and AI identify blood-borne tumor cells

Finding a few tumor cells hidden among billions of blood cells is one of the biggest challenges in liquid biopsy.

30 Sep 2026

UC researcher receives funding to study bone complications in people with sickle cell disease

September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month, and a University of Cincinnati College of Medicine hematology researcher has received new grant funding to study one of the disease's painful, under-recognized complications: bone damage.

25 Sep 2026

Researchers mine cobra toxins to uncover a membrane-disrupting antimicrobial peptide

Researchers combined toxin sequence mining with machine learning and deep-learning prediction tools to identify and experimentally test 14 antimicrobial peptide candidates derived from cobra cardiotoxins. Most candidates showed limited antibacterial potency, while CTX-p5 displayed moderate membrane-disrupting activity, revealing both the potential and current limitations of computationally guided venom peptide discovery.

17 Sep 2026

Study uncovers how interferon-alpha treats rare blood cancers

The biologic drug interferon-alpha can benefit patients with blood cancers called myeloproliferative neoplasms by forcing mutant blood stem cells to become shorter-lived white blood cells, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

15 Sep 2026

Targeted MS treatment protects the overall immune system

UZH researchers have developed a novel therapy for multiple sclerosis that is designed to stop the misguided immune response without suppressing the immune system as a whole.

1 Sep 2026

UC San Diego researchers win DARPA award to develop improved red blood cells

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have been awarded a contract of up to $11.312 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to pursue a high-risk, high-reward research project aimed at developing optimized red blood cells that can temporarily boost human performance and health.

31 Aug 2026

Lysine methylation found to control movement in single-celled parasites

LMU researchers identify a molecular mechanism that enables single-celled parasites to switch on the machinery they need to move and invade host cells.

28 Aug 2026

AI identifies key gene driving aging in blood stem cells

Stem cells possess the unique ability to self-renew and transform into different types of cells. For example, rare hematopoietic stem cells found in bone marrow can become any type of blood cell.

24 Aug 2026