Biomedical Science Day 2021

After one of the most challenging years we’ve ever known, we can’t wait to celebrate Biomedical Science Day 2021.

Here at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) we know all too well how vital biomedical science is to healthcare. We took the opportunity to speak to Jordan Moir, one of our very own biomedical scientists to find out what the last year has involved for him.

 

Jordan explained, "The past year has been really challenging for our whole department due to the pandemic, however we were able to increase our workload to include the addition of several new components to try and develop new therapies during the pandemic.

Our department already manages the receipt of all the whole blood and apheresis collections taken from across Scotland. These donations are processed and stored at the Jack Copland Centre (JCC) before being sent to hospital blood banks throughout Scotland.

With many surgeries cancelled and the public in lockdown we still managed to issue over 128,000 red cells, nearly 21,000 platelets and 15,000 clinical plasma components as well as continuing to supply specialist components, for example red blood cells for Intra Uterine Transfusion. We also took on the additional workload associated with various Covid-19 Convalescent Plasma clinical trials. We introduced two types of convalescent plasma products to support clinical trials from donors who had previously been infected with Covid-19. These products were used to provide hospitalised patients suffering from Covid-19 with antibodies for the virus to try and treat them." Everyone at SNBTS was very proud to have been able to take part in these clinical trials.

In addition to this, we also supported the vaccination program by storing and issuing the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine using our ultra-low temperature vaccine storage capability and the specific regulatory licences held within the facility.

 

 

Jordan, thank you to you and your colleagues for all of your hard work behind the scenes. You and other biomedical scientists like you are who make sure the magic happens once the donations have been given.