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Blood Work
In four years as CEO, Anne Chinoda has doubled the size of Florida’s Blood Centers. Now she faces a series of challenges, including younger donors who don’t give like their parents.
Research Connection
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When the Burnham Institute for Medical Research was recruited to Orlando in 2006, Florida’s Blood Centers leased it 14,000 square feet at its headquarters, the former Planet Hollywood building. Burnham will operate out of the space until it builds its own facility at Lake Nona.
Chinoda is working to make sure FBC’s relationship with the institute doesn’t end with real estate. She also wants to collaborate with her new tenant scientifically. Burnham, which researches therapies for cancer, Alzheimer’s, arthritis and other diseases, needs something that the blood center has: Adult stem cells. The blood center harvests adult stem cells from donors, who agree to undergo a hormone treatment that stimulates their body’s production of stem cells. Then, after the volunteers donate blood, the stem cells are separated. Often, those adult stem cells are used to help cancer patients who have undergone chemotherapy or radiation treatments rebuild their immunity.
“What we do every single day, which the general public doesn’t understand, is we’re doing adult stem cell collection,” says Chinoda. “So there’s no reason why we can’t collaborate.”
Bloodlines
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| » Donors can give every eight weeks or up to six times a year. » Red blood cells have a shelf life of 42 days, but the average donation is transfused within three days. | ||
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| » Every unit of donated blood undergoes 18 hours of testing, processing and labeling. | ||
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| » Donated blood must pass 11 screening tests before it is transfused. | ||
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| » Five different products can be derived from a single donation: White blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, plasma and a clotting factor. | ||
See the path blood takes from the donor's arm to the patient. Click here for narrated slideshow
