ABDS update February 2024

Donors are joining up in droves. Behind the scenes, we’re working hard recruiting donors to be a part of the ABDS. Our researchers will use your data and samples to answer questions about the donation experience, including donor and recipient health.

What’s happened so far?

In 2020 we started off with a pilot study of more than 2,000 whole blood donors to see if donors would be interested in participating in a biobank and a long-term donor study (you can learn more about that study here).

With the go ahead, we started testing our systems in two donor centres in late 2022 to make sure the study could run smoothly. After this initial soft-launch, we opened our invitations to plasma and platelet donors and included an SMS reminder. And, wow, you jumped at the chance to help!

In May 2023, we officially began recruiting and collecting samples in five donor centres across Australia, then another six by August. We brought on our first pop-up and mobile donor centres in November, which have been a great success with our regional communities equally eager to help.

Now, we have almost 5,000 donors enrolled in the study and we’re halfway to our goal of 6,200 samples in the biobank, which is an incredible start. Every participant counts, from start to finish.

Next steps

Thanks to all of you for being involved in the study. Every survey completed or sample collected helps us to reach our research target.

This month, six more donor centres will be getting involved, with our aim to have enough samples by June.