Taking back control of the global blood supply with Aptamer-Based Oxygen Transporters.
Only 50% of people in Canada are eligible to donate blood due to medications, cancer, infectious diseases or other health issues.
In Canada, only 1.23% of people actually donate blood. At any given time, there is less than a 5 days supply of blood.
Blood expires quickly, meaning stocks are temporary. In times of crisis like COVID-19, donations fall lower, putting lives at risk.
We invented a new approach to oxygen transport in the blood: using aptamers to manipulate the properties of the heme.
Aptamers are tangles of DNA that can stick to stuff, here they'll stick to heme, the oxygen-transporting part of your Red Blood Cells (RBC). Evolution is really good at designing all the parts that make up living things. We're going to mimic this using a technique called SELEX to evolve aptamers that are really good at carrying oxygen.
Learn MoreTo be able to take advantage of the oxygen-carrying potential of the heme in our blood, we evolve the aptamers over multiple generations to attach to the heme in a way that favours oxygen transport and dissuades interaction with dangerous chemicals like nitric oxide.
Next, we need to make sure the aptamer can survive in the body. We start by converting the bases into a different type of DNA called a locked nucleic acid (LNA), protecting the bases from degradation. We also PEGylate the LNA, protecting it from kidney filtration.
Once we've finished the evolution of the aptamer once, we can sequence its DNA so we can duplicate it for the future. We can then manufacture the final aptamers and heme to distribute them to customers.
The ability to manufacture RBCs means the days of low supply and fear are gone.
Due to its DNA base, Oxalis ABOT can be freeze-dried and stored at room temperatures forever, letting us build up stock, unlike normal blood.
Depending on scalability, Oxalis has the potential to be 3x cheaper than human red blood cells.
Compared to other RBC substitutes, ABOT lasts 10-100x longer in the body. The technology also allows us to address any safety concerns easily.
This FAQ is made to answer questions about technical aspects, address concerns about safety, and share our plans for implementation.
All FAQsYes! We've done a lot of research on all the roles of current red blood cells and have designed ABOT to complete all of them. With the aptamer technology being used, we can constantly take feedback and results from trials and tests to improve the product so that when it goes to market, it's 100% safe!
Depending on the scalability of the synthesis process, the price can be a worst-case of around $200 per pint (about the same as the price of current RBC) and a best case of being under $100, saving the healthcare sector millions each year.
We do not plan on selling directly to patients. Instead, we will partner with blood authorities like Blood Services Canada and hospitals to supply directly to them.
Oxalis ABOT can actually be stored indefinitely in a dried form which can be later rehydrated and diluted for infusion. This mitigates two of the biggest disadvantages of current blood, which are being perishable and needing very controlled conditions (no more than a total of 10 minutes >0C).