The University of British Columbia’s Centre for Blood Research-School of Biomedical Engineering (CBR-SBME) Research Day celebrates the progress and accomplishments of summer students. It takes place every August, at the conclusion of the CBR-SBME Summer Studentship Program, which is supported in part by Canadian Blood Services. In this post, two Summer Student Program alumni describe the 2021 virtual event.

Canadian Blood Services recently published its annual Surveillance Report, a summary of monitoring efforts related to transmissible infection testing in donors; possible transfusion-transmitted infections in recipients; and new, emerging pathogens. Surveillance also includes monitoring of donor safety.

For the second year, the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) offered their annual congress online. In June 2021, the virtual “ISBT In Focus” explored the latest in transfusion medicine and science, immunohematology and cellular therapies. In today’s blog, two Canadian Blood Services’ delegates describe their experiences at the congress.

Through the Centre for Innovation’s competitive funding programs, Canadian Blood Services conducts and supports researchers and research projects in key areas. Recipients for one of our most dynamic programs, the BloodTechNet Award, were recently announced, and several other funding opportunities are now open for applications.

The Canadian Blood Services Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals whose landmark contributions are both extraordinary and world class in the field of transfusion or transplantation medicine, stem cell or cord blood research in Canada and/or abroad.

The Intramural Research Grant Program, one of the Centre for Innovation’s most responsive and impactful research funding programs, and the Kenneth J. Fyke Program, which supports health services and policy research, are both open for applications.

Dr. Devine will bring roles together to bridge discoveries into better care

The Centre for Innovation is the heart of Canadian Blood Services’ research and development activities. Its latest annual report, covering the fiscal year 2019-2020, is now available on blood.ca.

The Centre for Innovation is delighted to launch our third annual Lay Science Writing Competition. This year’s theme – Challenges 2020 – provides an outlet for trainees to tell their stories of research, science and communication during this unprecedented and challenging year.

Dr. Isra Levy is in charge of medical and scientific support for all aspects of Canadian Blood Services’ work — how does he prepare for this job during a pandemic? To better understand what crisis leadership is, I asked Isra to share the lessons he has learned through his leadership journey.