By providing clinical research opportunities for donated blood, the partnership provides an answer to blood donors who ask to do more with their donation.
SAN DIEGO, June 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- San Diego Blood Bank and LunaPBC are partnering to invite blood donors to further support health research through blood donation. This new collaboration expands upon San Diego Blood Bank's earlier work with Luna that enrolled blood donors interested in participating in COVID-19 research.
The partnership answers the call from blood donors who ask to do more to improve the health of their community by participating in research studies that matter to them.
"When we began collecting convalescent plasma for COVID-19 hospital patients at the height of the pandemic, donors who recovered from the virus came out in droves to donate to help those in their community and beyond," said Nikhil Nayak, Chief Business Officer for San Diego Blood Bank. "Our blood donors often ask about additional ways they can support our mission, so we are proud to afford them the opportunity to influence the future of personalized medicine through innovative programs like this."
The launch of the partnership coincides with World Blood Donor Day which celebrates blood donors for their service and commitment to saving lives.
"Regular blood donation has been a cornerstone to global health, with donor blood being used for surgeries, cancer treatments, chronic illnesses, and injuries," said Doug Morton, Chief Executive Officer for San Diego Blood Bank. "In addition to acknowledging blood donors, we also want to commend the health professionals, like those at San Diego Blood Bank, who conduct research, develop new technologies, and find new uses for donated blood, as well as the medical teams who use donated blood for their patients on a regular basis."
The San Diego Blood bank chose the Luna technology platform because of its people-centered framework that increases participant engagement and retention, ensures interventions meet the priorities and needs of individuals, and facilitates comprehensive, longitudinal studies.
San Diego Blood Bank has leveraged itself beyond transfusion medicine. Today, it is a platform for ensuring the community's health by connecting its resources and diverse blood donors with research opportunities like the one announced with Luna. This will ultimately improve the future health of Southern California by securing lifesaving treatments for people of all backgrounds.
"Factors such as genetics, age, gender, and ethnic origin play an important role in the effectiveness of medical treatments, which is why diversity in research participants is incredibly important," said Nayak.
The Luna technology platform enables individual data sharing that preserves individual privacy and data utility for discovery. In May 2022, Luna announced a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was conducted to characterize the platform's compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The DPIA confirmed that the data privacy rights of Luna members are fully supported. It is commonly accepted that GDPR is the most demanding data privacy standard adopted by many non-European Union countries and it served as an exemplar for California's Privacy Rights Act which will launch in January 2023.
Dedicated blood donor Jeff Gonka said, "One standard blood donation could save up to three lives, but one small blood sample donated for research could potentially save thousands of lives."
To learn more about the Southern California Discovery Community, visit: https://www.lunadna.com/sdbb/
San Diego Blood Bank is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization also operating as Southern California Blood Bank. The Blood Bank serves hospitals throughout Southern California. San Diego Blood Bank is dedicated to community health by providing a reliable supply of blood to patients in need. Our vision is to further ensure the health of our community by simultaneously delivering related health and wellness education and services and collaborating with various partners in medical research. San Diego Blood Bank currently operates nine fixed-site donation locations and 10 bloodmobiles. For more information about SDBB, visit www.SanDiegoBloodBank.org or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin.
Founded in 2017, LunaPBC is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Diego, California. The team, investors, and advisors are renowned in the patient advocacy, health, and science fields. With participation from over 180 countries and communities advancing causes including disease-specific, public health, environmental, and emerging interests, The Luna platform empowers these collectives to gather a wide range of data — health records, lived experience, disease history, genomics, and more — to advance research that addresses their unique health needs. Luna makes research representative of the real world and aligned with people's true goals by giving all participants a role from right where they are. For more information, visit LunaDNA.com.
SOURCE LunaPBC; San Diego Blood Bank
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