The Basic Transfusion Biology Working Party is focused on promoting experimental design approaches that investigate the molecular and cellular basis of how blood transfusions and related pathologies, and biotherapies, work.
Chairperson and committee
Chairs: Rick Kapur (Netherlands) and Karina Yazdanbakhsh (United States)
Treasurer: John Semple (Sweden)
Membership
The Working Party currently comprises 34 members from 10 countries. All members were welcomed in the reporting period.
Meetings
The Working Party held a business meeting on 1 June 2025 during the 35th Regional ISBT Congress in Milan, providing an opportunity for members to discuss key organisational priorities, ongoing initiatives, and strategic developments within the Working Party. The meeting also enabled in-person engagement with members and representatives attending the congress, strengthening collaboration and supporting the continued advancement of the wp activities.
A further live and virtual face-to-face meeting was held at the ISBT Central Office in Amsterdam on 24 February 2026. This hybrid format allowed broad participation and facilitated discussions on governance matters, operational planning, and preparations for upcoming ISBT programmes and congresses.
Activities during the period
The agenda of the business meeting in ISBT Milan featured presentation of the outcomes of our initial questionnaire which requested feedback on the basic set-up and first steps of the working party after initial launch. Furthermore, 5 young investigators were invited to pitch their selected abstract for the business meeting in presentation (2 live and 3 virtual presentations).
Additionally, in the meeting at the ISBT Central Office in we further discussed the research topics we will be addressing within our first prioritized focus of Pulmonary Transfusion Reactions. These four topics will be translated into reviews driven a by junior investigators, supported by 1-2 senior members. Together, these 4 topics will culminate in a reviews series planned to be published in Vox Sanguinis in Q4 2026. This will serve a starting point to identify knowledge gaps which we will then be able to further pursue within the working party.
Summary
The BTB Working Party have made solid launch of the working party, culminating in 34 members from 10 countries. The aim of the WP is to support and promote the development of junior investigators, which are placed on the forefront of topics that the group aims to address – first via writing of reviews identifying knowledge gaps – within the research domain of Pulmonary Transfusion Reactions.
