Canadian researchers are reporting a possible game-changing discovery that could expand the pool of potential blood donors and make blood-matching easier and safer.
They believe they have found the means to convert any type of blood into universally usable group O, with enzymes found in the human gut.
For transfusions to be safe, blood from a donor who has A, B, or A-B blood types must match that of a patient, while O-type blood has no antigens on its surface — and so can be transfused into anyone and is always in high demand.
U-B-C biochemistry professor Stephen Withers says his team isolated the enzymes that sugar-feeding bacteria use to pluck off the sugar molecules and found the enzymes capable of performing a similar action on blood antigens too.

(The Canadian Press)