Congratulations to Prof Zoe McQuilten and team on receipt of an MRFF grant to investigate the effectiveness of high-dose heparin in treating patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Read more here.

We are very pleased to welcome Yaye to the Transfusion Research Unit. Dr Melsew has a Master of Public Health, and a PhD in epidemiology from Monash University. He joins our group as a Senior Data Officer, working on data management and analysis with the clinical trials and registry teams.

Congratulations to Dr Brenton Sanderson on the recent completion of his PhD. Brenton’s thesis explored the role of decision support and health informatics in massive transfusion for critical bleeding. Read his latest paper describing the outcomes of this work in Transfusion.

A huge congratulations to Prof Zoe McQuilten for receiving the David Cooper Award for highest ranked grant application under the annual NHMRC Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grant Scheme, presented at the NHMRC Research Excellence Awards. This grant will support the ongoing work around an emerging risk factor in blood cancers, heart disease and stroke – clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP). Read more about the longitudinal ASPREE-CHIP study here.

Thanks to all participants, site staff and investigators who contributed to the RATIONAL (Role of Antibiotic Therapy or Immunoglobulin On iNfections in hAematoLogy) pilot trial of immunoglobulin or prophylactic antibiotics in adults with blood cancers and acquired hypomgammaglobulinaemia. The results have now been published in Blood Advances. The health economics analysis was led by Sara Carrillo De Albornoz, health economist, and a PhD student with TRU and the Monash Centre for Health Economics. The investigators thank the National Blood Authority for funding this important pilot work, which is now expanded with the NHMRC-funded RATIONALISE trial and the MRFF-funded RATIONAL platform trial.

Congratulations to the APAC MRDR investigators and staff who have recruited more than 1700 participants across 5 countries in the region. It has been an enormous achievement to establish the APAC MRDR in Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia, and the first patients have been recruited in China at the first two participating hospitals. A description of the registry activities and preliminary results has been published here.

Congratulations to the CLIP-II investigators, staff and teams at the 11 participating hospitals on completing recruitment to this important trial! CLIP-II is a randomised phase III non-inferiority trial comparing cryopreserved versus liquid-stored platelets for patients with surgical bleeding in the context of cardiac surgery. The trial is funded by the NHMRC. Stay tuned for the results in late 2024!

Professor Wood was the keynote speaker at the Transfusion Medicine Update: Asia-Pacific Symposium, held in Kota Bharu in February 2024, and co-hosted by Universiti Sains Malaysia and the International Society of Blood Transfusion. She contributed presentations on personalised medicine, and haemovigilance to an audience from across the region.

The DIAAMOND trial (Diagnosis of aplastic anaemia, management and outcomes, utilising a national dataset) has completed recruitment and preparations for analysis are underway. DIAAMOND is an MRFF-funded, registry-based phase II trial of avatrombopag for severe aplastic anaemia in adults, embedded in the Aplastic Anaemia and Other Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes Registry (AAR). Thanks to all participants, site staff and investigators who contributed! The trial methods manuscript has also been published recently.

Congratulations to the Australian and New Zealand Myeloma and Related Diseases Registry (ANZ MRDR) for recruiting their 7,000th patient in March! The registry provides an important resource for multidisciplinary researchers to access real world data and improve the care of myeloma and related diseases patients. You can read more about the Registry here.

The Blood Synergy team was proud to facilitate a Transfusion in Trauma Meeting in February. The meeting brought together experts in transfusion, trauma medicine and prehospital care to hear about current clinical trials, discuss contentious topics in trauma resuscitation, and start a conversation around trial design and future research priorities. Thank you to all the participants who joined us for a productive day of discussion.

Thank you to all participants in the Blood Synergy Open Meeting 2024 held on February 26th. With almost 200 registrants, we were joined in person and online by guests from across Australia and the world to hear about the latest research addressing evidence gaps in transfusion medicine. A special thank you too to our community and consumer panellists for sharing their perspectives on the importance of community engagement in research.

Prof Aubron is an academic intensive care specialist with the Centre Hospitalier Régional et Universitaire de Brest, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest. Cécile holds an adjunct professor appointment at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, where she has been involved in research with the ANZIC-RC and collaborated with TRU on transfusion research for over 10 years. She is visiting SPHPM in February and March 2024.

Professor Zoe McQuilten presented the results of the UK-Australian TREATT trial at the ASH Annual Meeting in San Diego on behalf of the TREATT investigators. We thank all participants, investigators and staff and the trial steering committee for their enormous efforts to undertake this important study. The Australian arm of the trial was funded by NHMRC project grant #1085062 and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion.

Drs Allison Mo and Briony Shaw, haematologists and TRU PhD students, along with A/Prof Eliza Hawkes and Prof Erica Wood were invited to participate in the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Clinical Research Training Institute Trainee Day held in Sydney. Erica also presented the transfusion medicine and apheresis highlights update to the conference (13–17 February 2024), which was attended by participants from around the region.

A warm welcome to Jenny as she joins the TRU as part of the RMIT Pharmaceutical Sciences program. She will be spending her professional placement with us in 2024, working with the clinical trials and registry teams. TRU has participated in this valuable industry placement scheme since 2017, preparing students for careers in research.

February 29 marks Rare Disease Day – the globally-coordinated movement on rare diseases, working towards equity in social opportunity, healthcare, and access to diagnosis and therapies for people living with a rare disease. TRU manages a number of clinical registries and research projects that facilitate research for investigating the best possible treatment outcomes for patients with rare blood disorders. Find out more about Rare Disease Day.

TRU is delighted to support the T4P Threshold for Platelets trial – a prospective randomised trial to define the platelet count below which critically ill patients should receive a platelet transfusion prior to an invasive procedure. This trial, managed by the UK Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) and funded by the UK NIHR will expand to Australia, with pilot funding from the Blood Synergy now to be supplemented by support from the Medical Research Future Fund, in a collaboration led by Dr Elissa Milford at the University of Queensland, through the International Clinical Trial Collaborations scheme.

Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, a participating site in the Asia-Pacific Myeloma and Related Diseases Registry (APAC MRDR), have enrolled the registry’s first patients from China! The hospital, along with Renji Hospital in Shanghai, are recent additions to the APAC MRDR and the team at TRU are trilled the registry has achieved this milestone. We thank our colleagues at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital for their work and look forward to ongoing recruitment of patients in the region.

Congratulations to the Lymphoma and Related Diseases Registry (LaRDR) who have now recruited 7,000 patients! The registry provides an important resource for multidisciplinary researchers to access real world data and improve the care of lymphoma and related diseases. You can read more about the Registry here.

Sickle cell disease is an important inherited blood disorder affecting communities around the world. It can result in multisystem complications, including painful vaso-occlusive events, and some patients require transfusion support. Data from the Australian Haemoglobinopathy Registry were recently published in the RACP Internal Medicine Journal, and used by the Medical Services Advisory Committee in their consideration of whether to incorporate sickle cell disease into the national newborn bloodspot screening program.