Nara Medical University claims to have developed a hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (red blood cell surrogate)

I stumbled across some interesting Japanese articles from not even a day ago. I thought I'd share them, since I can't find any English coverage so far.

This is not my field of expertise, so I am not sure whether my interpretation of this article is correct and what impact this might have. Maybe this is even old news? I don't know.

Here is summary of the article in English:

"Nara Medical University announced the successful creation of artificial blood for transfusions. Professor Hiromi Sakai stated that this development could significantly benefit human health. The university developed artificial red blood cells, which carry oxygen in the blood. The process involves extracting hemoglobin from expired donated blood and encapsulating it in lipid membranes. These artificial red blood cells can be transfused regardless of blood type and have a shelf life of two years at room temperature, compared to four weeks for regular red blood cells. Clinical trials are planned, with approval targeted for 2030."

Here is the article I stumbled upon (July 2, 2024):
奈良県立医科大学 “人工血液”を開発 | TBS NEWS DIG (1ページ) https://newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/-/1266945

A more long-winded article on the same topic (July 2, 2024):
https://www.mbs.jp/news/feature/kansai/article/2024/07/101038.shtml

Here is the lab page:
https://chem.naramed-u.ac.jp/ENGLISH_PAGE/e_invest_blood.html

Hopefully it is at least mildly interesting.