Categories for Research / Innovation

AIDS Screening: Stanford Blood Center’s Pioneering Role

June 24, 2011 at 2:48 pm
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By Ed Engleman, MD, Founder and Medical Director, Stanford Blood Center

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During the early 1980s we decided to apply new research technology to a clinical problem: the prevention of the transmission by transfusion of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The problem was highly charged with social, political, legal, ethical, and economic overtones complicating the technical and medical issues at hand. In a decision that engendered intense controversy, in 1983 Stanford Blood Center instituted the first blood testing program specifically intended to reduce the risk of transfusion transmission of the then uncharacterized, but presumed infectious cause of AIDS.


Some Reflections on the 30th Anniversary of AIDS

June 6, 2011 at 8:59 am
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By Ruthann Richter, Director of Media Relations at the Stanford School of Medicine.

One of the many controversies I covered was the decision by the Stanford Blood Center to be the first in the country to test for the virus in donated blood. The move was reviled in the blood banking industry, for it called into question the safety and reliability of the nation's blood supply. The blood center later would be vindicated, as every other bank would ultimately follow suit and routinely test for HIV. Center Director Ed Engleman, MD, says Stanford's early initiative saved some 30,000 lives.


Type-2 Diabetes an Autoimmune Disease?

April 19, 2011 at 10:50 am
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Tweet Guest post by Krista Conger, Science Writer for Communications & Public Affairs at Stanford School of Medicine. Click here to be taken to the original post on Scope, Stanford School of Medicine’s blog. Stanford researchers, led by pathologist Edgar...


Lifesaving Research at Stanford Blood Center

March 2, 2011 at 3:55 pm
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By Erin Crager, Marketing Intern, Stanford Blood Center

The collateral damage associated with chemotherapy and radiation treatment may soon be a thing of the past. Medical students have traditionally been taught that the body's immune system generally doesn't turn on itself, even in the presence of a tumor. But Ed Engleman, MD and his research team at Stanford Blood Center have developed a method for training the body's immune system to do just that for prostate cancer. Their research over the past eighteen years has opened new doors for potentially curing other forms of cancer, as well.