{
  "id": 14411184,
  "title": "The US military’s race to make fake blood",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/the-us-militarys-race-to-make-fake-blood",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-14T09:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MIT Technology Review",
    "slug": "mit-technology-review",
    "url": "https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/14/1145807/us-military-race-to-make-fake-blood/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The US military is racing to create artificial blood substitutes due to a chronic shortage of real blood. Roughly 90% of preventable battlefield deaths are caused by bleeding, and blood is also the leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide. A study published in 2025 found that only 1% of trauma patients in the United States who needed blood before reaching a hospital actually received it, resulting in approximately 10,000 preventable deaths annually in the US. Globally, the figure is likely in the millions.\n\nOne of the challenges is that blood has a limited shelf life. While whole blood lasts only 35 days when refrigerated, platelets have a week-long lifespan and red blood cells, once thawed, spoil within days. Blood must be replenished quickly; a JAMA study of combat injuries in Afghanistan suggests that there is a 36-minute window to initiate a transfusion.\n\nThe $73 million DARPA program called RAPIID aims to develop shelf-stable versions of plasma, platelets, and red blood cells to address these issues. RAPIID is coordinating clinical trials with the FDA and sourcing necessary equipment for transfusions. Developing shelf-stable plasma is relatively easier, as it has been produced since the late 1930s, but platelets have proven more challenging. In the effort to provide portable, shelf-stable blood components, plasma is seen as the most promising area to tackle first.",
  "summary": "Its call sign was Morphine 1-2. In February 2007, the hulking dual-rotor casualty evacuation helicopter had just flown three wounded soldiers to a field hospital in Balad, north of Baghdad, when another call came: an emergency mission to fly through an insurgent-controlled area in broad daylight. Typically, helicopters would be in a spot like…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "MIT Tech Review Biotech",
        "title": "The US military’s race to make fake blood",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/the-us-militarys-race-to-make-fake-blood",
        "published": "2026-10-14T09:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}