Your blood donation can help us understand how to improve donor health and potentially reduce donation deferrals (being unable to donate blood at that time) for everyone. We can do this by collectively looking at your lifestyle factors, genetic make-up and certain blood biomarkers (these are easily measured blood components that give a clue to health status). This approach may lead to more personalised blood donation in the future.
Genes are made from DNA and are the basic ‘instruction book’ for your body’s development and function. Everyone’s genes are slightly different and explain some of the variation between people, such as eye colour. These differences also partly explain why some people, but not others, get certain diseases, and can help researchers discover new tools to diagnose and treat disease. Researchers can now quickly read a large fraction of the entire genetic code to help understand the role of genes in health and disease so we can begin to identify better treatments, reduce the effect of a health condition or even cure it.
This research depends on the availability of a large number of participants willing to contribute blood samples.
The STRIDES BioResource is organised by NHSBT, University of Cambridge and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) BioResource.