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The Landsteiner Laboratory is a virtual laboratory signifying the long standing collaboration between the AmsterdamUMC (location AMC) and the division of Research & Lab services of Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation. The physical location of the Landsteiner Lab are the Sanquin premises in Amsterdam new west.

Our aim is to discover novel methods and approaches to prevent, diagnose, treat or cure disease in donors and patients using blood cells and blood products by reducing the use of, replacing, improving or developing new blood products. Our research program is focused on four medical priorities Anemia, Bleeding & Hemostasis, Immunotherapy, and Immunity & Inflammation.

Medical priority Anemia

The production of safe red cell transfusion units to alleviate anemia is a core activity of Sanquin. Transfusions are often lifesaving but they also carry risks for transfusion-related complications such as alloimmunization, iron accumulation, infection, or transfusion related lung injury, the extent of which may depend on the transfusion product, the nature of the anemia, and the condition of the patient. Research within the medical priority (MP) anemia aims to understand and predict donor health, cognition, and behavior, to improve the safety of the transfusion product and the transfusion protocol, to optimize the transfusion efficiency, to innovate transfusion products, and to find alternative treatments for anemia.

Overall, the MP Anemia aims to support the transfusion of high-quality blood products derived from dedicated healthy donors to patients with the least possible risk for transfusion related complications, while alternative strategies to alleviate anemia are also developed.

More information on the research themes may be found here.

Medical priority Bleeding & Hemostasis

Hemostasis is maintained by the delicate triadic interplay between blood vessel wall, circulating platelets and coagulation factors. Defects in any of these components can result in extended and spontaneous bleeding and other poorly understood clinical manifestations. The mission of the Medical Priority Bleeding & Hemostasis is to improve preventive measures, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with congenital and/or acquired hemostatic disorders. This is done by: i) generating fundamental and translational knowledge to directly support clinical and blood bank decision making aimed at prevention of undesirable side-effects of currently available transfusion-based therapies ii) increasing understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms underlying hemostatic disorders using system-wide -omics technologies and iii) invigorating the development of innovative treatment-options for patients suffering from hemostatic abnormalities. The Medical Priority Bleeding & Hemostasis is composed of a multidisciplinary team of experts that allows for conducting fundamental, translational as well as epidemiological studies to address unmet medical needs in bleeding and hemostasis.

More information on the research themes may be found here.

Medical priority Immunotherapy

Our fundamental research questions are aimed at improving diagnostic tools and cellular products for cancer patients. Many research lines are formulated together with our clinical partners. Addressing fundamental questions in tumor immunology and tumor biology funded by external grants paves the way for novel leads in product development. The strong collaborations between different research groups and the close interactions with Research and LCT/Diagnostics/Reagents substantially contributes to the scientific knowledge. It is also required to develop and optimize in-house services and products. Continuous internal support through continuous investments into core facilities is key to sustain high quality research and to attract excellent talents to Sanquin. With this unique setup, Sanquin can be at the forefront of scientific advances and in product development, and at the forefront of FAIR MEDICINE. We can thus contribute to the development of affordable immunotherapy treatments that are widely accessible to patients.

More information on the research themes may be found here.

Medical priority Immunity & Inflammation

The medical priority Immunity & Inflammation investigates immune responses to develop novel diagnostics, targeted therapies and personalized medicine and to prevent unwanted side effects from transfusion of blood cells or products. Our ambition for the next 5-8 years is to have developed at least one novel strategy/therapy to prevent unwanted immune responses associated with transfusion of blood products, at least one novel cellular blood product, and a novel diagnostic tool or algorithm to predict development of unwanted antibody responses in people receiving blood transfusion or biologics.

More information on the research themes may be found here.