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Artificial blood may soon save lives

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This is bloody good news.

Scientists are one step closer to making faux blood a reality with funding of more than $46 million. The potentially life-saving technology will be designed by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and in collaboration with the university’s School of Pharmacy, for the next four years.

“We have assembled an outstanding team to develop a bio-synthetic whole-blood product that can be freeze-dried for easy portability, storage, and reconstitution,” the study’s principal investigator Dr. Allan Doctor said in a statement.

“It will be designed for easy use in the field by medics at the point of injury, and will perform like a traditional blood transfusion to, for example, stabilize a patient’s blood pressure or facilitate blood clotting,” added Doctor, who is also a professor of pediatrics and director of the Center for Blood Oxygen Transport & Hemostasis at the university.

The $46.4 million project, which is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, will seek to design artificial blood that could save the lives of trauma victims.

Bleeding is the most common cause of death during trauma. Annually, more than 60,000 Americans die of uncontrolled blood loss. And while transfusions are touted as the gold standard for treatment, it’s often difficult to find a blood-type match in time, or have enough of it in refrigerated storage to do the job. Artificial blood could remedy such a problems.

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With the help of experts and scientists from other universities, the development of artificial blood has the potential to be more flexible due to the extended shelf life — therefore saving more lives.

“About 20,000 Americans each year bleed to death before they can be brought to the hospital,” Dr. Mark Gladwin, who is the dean at the university’s School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs for the institution, said in a statement.

“Transfusion at the point of injury is required to stabilize them and limit other organ injury,” the distinguished professor added. “This project will utilize cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence to predict interactions among the blood components in various trauma model systems, which would not have been possible a decade ago.”

The research team will be working on developing an artificial oxygen carrier — otherwise known as a red blood cell — which Doctor previously pioneered. The end product will be comprised of multiple components: synthetic platelets developed by Dr. Anirban Sen Gupta of Case Western Reserve University, freeze-dried plasma manufactured by Teleflex and a substance called ErythroMer, which was made by a company co-founded by Dr. Doctor called KaloCyte.

The “key therapeutic functions” would be to stop bleeding, deliver oxygen and replace volume — all of which the artificial blood must do in the first phase of the study, researchers said.

In the second phase, scientists will analyze how efficient and safe the blood product is in “increasingly complex and realistic trauma models,” which will include creating methods to store and extend the shelf life of the blood for months in “extreme environments” and varying conditions.

Throughout the process, the team will also be committed to refining the blood’s manufacturing by figuring out how to navigate the “real-world pragmatic challenges” across all fronts: production, packaging, scaling and quality.

“We are well-positioned to support this highly complex project that requires the use of advanced modeling and simulation, and a machine learning software system to optimize the prototypes and to test for safety and efficacy in models of complex trauma with multiple complications,” study co-investigator and professor Dr. Joga Gobburu, the director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the university, said in a statement.

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REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL SELECTION)

 

OECS MSME Guarantee Facility Project

Loan No.: IDA-62670, IDA-62660, IDA-62640, IBRD-88830, IDA-62650

Assignment Title: Senior Operating Officer (SOO)

Reference No. KN-ECPCGC-207852-CS-INDV

 

The Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have received financing in the amount of US$10 million equivalent from the World Bank towards the cost of establishing a partial credit guarantee scheme, and they intend to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, and consulting services to be procured under this project. 

The consultant will serve as the “Senior Operating Officer (SOO)” for the ECPCGC and should possess extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to Micro, small and medium-sized businesses, knowledge of the internal control processes necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk mitigation procedures. The ideal candidate should possess an Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Accounting, Banking or related field, with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in lending, inclusive of MSME lending. The initial employment period will be for two years on a contractual basis. Renewal of the contract will be subject to a performance evaluation at the end of the contractual period. The assignment is expected to begin on September 30th, 2021.  The consultant will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the ECPCGC.

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be viewed by following the attached link below. 

 

https://bit.ly/3iVannm

 

The Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECPCGC) now invites eligible “Consultants” to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have:

  • An Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Finance, Banking or related field; and
  • Minimum of 5 years’ experience in MSME lending. Applicants should also have:
  • The ability to design and implement risk management procedures 
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to small and medium-sized businesses
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME banking operations
  • Knowledge of the internal controls necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk management procedures
  • Experience developing and presenting information in public, including responding to questions in real-time
  • Experience lending to MSMEs located in the ECCU
  • Knowledge of marketing and communicating with the MSME sector
  • Ability to draft procedures to be used in a lending operation
  • Familiarity with the mechanics of a loan guarantee program
  • Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills, and
  • Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite.

The attention of interested Individual Consultants is drawn to Section III, Paragraphs 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers July 2016, [revised November 2017] (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Approved Selection Method for Individual Consultants set out in the clause 7.34 of the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. 

 

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 0800 to 1700 hours:

Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation

Brid Rock, Basseterre,

St. Kitts.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form by e-mail by August 11th, 2021, to [email protected]

 

For further information, please contact:

Carmen Gomez-Trigg                                                            Bernard Thomas

Chief Executive Officer                                                          Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 868-620-8144                                                                  Tel: 869-765-2385

Email: [email protected]                                          [email protected]