A technology developed by a Chinese military medical research institute will make it possible to change one blood type into another.
Researchers with the Chinese People's Liberation Army Medical Research Institute succeeded in cloning alfa-galactosidase cDNA out of coffee beans produced by south China's Hainan Province. The alfa-galactosidase cDNA serves as a key step in the transfer of blood type B into type O.
The researchers have mastered the key technology of changing blood groups. Animal tests will soon be made at the Tianjin Industrial Park of New Technology.
The researchers hope to study the transition between blood type A to type O based on the achievement.
Blood type transition will help those people with rare blood types suffering blood diseases requiring repeated blood transfusion to survive.
(Xinhua 10/24/2000)
