Lab-Built Red Blood Cells Look & Act Like the Real Deal

They may look simple, but our red blood cells are the sophisticated result of evolution. So to create new ways to study our bodies and perhaps even disperse drugs to different organs and body parts, scientists played copycat. A team of researchers announced this week that they have developed synthetic red blood cells that mimic our natural ones in both form and function. They describe their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To make red blood cells in the lab, study leader Samir Mitragotri and colleagues started with spheres of biodegradable polymer.