Project description
A boost for blood transfusion safety
Nearly one in five people in the EU will receive a blood transfusion in their lifetime. However, current safety protocols focus mainly on preventing known infectious diseases, overlooking potential risks to donors and emerging, unconventional threats. With this in mind, the ERC-funded ASTUTE project will build an anonymised, nationwide vein-to-vein database in Sweden. It will link donor and recipient data with long-term health outcomes. The project will investigate unexplored risks, from amyloid β transmission to the effects of iron depletion in female donors. Combining classical epidemiology with machine learning, ASTUTE aims to redefine blood safety standards and offer a new, evidence-based framework to better protect both donors and recipients across Europe.
Objective
The lifetime risk of receiving a transfusion is almost 20%, meaning that close to 100 million EU citizens will receive a transfusion at some point in their lives. Consequently, the issue of blood transfusion safety—in a wide sense—are highly relevant for population health. It is therefore disconcerting that blood safety is often narrowly defined, focusing almost exclusively on the elimination of known transfusion-transmitted disease, ignoring donor health and failing to consider unconventional pathogens. In this comprehensive research program, proposing a series of Advanced Studies in Transfusion Epidemiology, I will lead research within four distinct work packages, first creating a nationwide vein-to-vein database, with detailed data on blood donors and transfused patients in Sweden between 1968 and 2023, linked to detailed outcomes registers, and then making a version of this database publicly available through anonymization. We will then exploit this database in a series of applied studies divided into three work packages. In the first of these, we will conduct a careful, hypothesis-based investigation where we follow-up a previous publication from my research group, showing possible transfusion transmission of an agent causing intracerebral hemorrhage, seeking to establish the etiology of these hemorrhages, and testing whether it might have been driven by transmission of amyloid β. In the second work package we will perform a series of studies of blood donor health, investigating aspects on donor health behavior, short term risks of donating blood, and the risks of negative intergenerational effects from the iron-depletion suffered by many female blood donors. Lastly, we will perform a comprehensive, phenome-wide study where we search for unknown transfusion-transmitted disease using both traditional epidemiological and state-of-the-art machine learning methods. Together, these tasks have the potential of making important gains for transfusion safety in Europe.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health epidemiology
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
171 77 STOCKHOLM
Sweden
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.