New York Blood Center Receives Grant from MetLife Foundation Supporting Rare Blood Research Initiative 1/28/2004
From: Rich Murphy of New York Blood Center, 212-570-3101 or 917-439-1727 (mobile) NEW YORK, Jan. 28 -- New York Blood Center (NYBC) is proud to announce that MetLife Foundation has made a grant of $325,000 over two years to sustain the MetLife Foundation Rare Blood Research Initiative: Meeting the Transfusion Needs of the Community. This support plays a critical role in improving the rapid and accurate identification of compatible blood for patients with rare blood and helps to save lives by making transfusion medicine safer. Since 1998, MetLife Foundation has provided almost $1 million to support this important research initiative. With the diverse population the New York Blood Center serves, close matching is extremely important. "This important research is needed to meet the expanding blood needs of a diverse population," said Sibyl Jacobson, President and CEO, MetLife Foundation. According to Dr. Marion Reid, Head - Laboratory of Immunochemistry at NYBC's Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, "Being able to identify and then match rare blood types, especially within ethnic groups, is paramount to transfusion success." The Rare Blood Program receives an average of twenty calls a day for answers to rare blood needs and requirements. The Initiative's research will continue to be conducted by MetLife Fellow Gregory Halverson. In addition to MetLife Foundation support, MetLife was one of the major corporations to establish and fund a national blood donor program in 1965. Since that time, corporations have modeled their donor programs after the MetLife program. MetLife Foundation, established in 1976 by MetLife, supports health, education, civic and cultural programs throughout the United States. For more information about the Foundation, visit the Web site at http://www.metlife.org. INTERVIEW, TAPING AND PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE New York Blood Center, which is not affiliated with the American Red Cross, is one of the nation's largest non-profit, community-based blood centers. With the support of our many regional operations (1), New York Blood Center has been providing blood transfusion products and services to patients in New York and New Jersey hospitals since 1964. New York Blood Center is also home to the world-renown Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute and the National Cord Blood Program, the nation's largest public cord blood bank. New York Blood Center's Hemophilia Services, in partnership with the Hemophilia Services Consortium, provides critical drugs and blood products delivered to the homes of area patients. (1) New York Blood Center includes: -- Brooklyn/Staten Island Blood Services, providing blood to hospitals in Brooklyn & Staten Island; -- Hudson Valley Blood Services, providing blood to hospitals in the Bronx and the lower Hudson Valley; -- Long Island Blood Services, providing blood to hospitals in Queens, Nassau & Suffolk; -- New Jersey Blood Services, providing blood to hospitals in northern & central New Jersey; -- New York Blood Services, providing blood to hospitals in Manhattan. -- New York Blood Center Clinical Services, providing Perioperative Autologous Transfusion (reinfusing a patients own blood during Surgery) plus Therapeutic Apheresis procedures plus Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants. All of these services are provided to hospitals in the above geographic areas and to a select number of hospitals in Connecticut. -- Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, a center for blood related research of over 100 scientists working towards a safer blood supply and more effective transfusion medicine worldwide. |