Newsletter December 2016

Donor InSight-III almost ready to analyse

December 2016 - Donor InSight (DIS)-III data collection will be completed soon! We expect to have new data on approximately 3,000 DIS-donors by the end of this year. From these donors, blood samples were collected, questionnaires retrieved, and -in a subset of participating donors- accelerometers were used to objectively measure physical activity.

More information

Donor InSight-III SNP array

December 2016 - The DIS DNA samples will be analysed using the UK Biobank Axiom® Array (Affymetrix, CA, USA). Results are expected in 2017 and give us and collaborating researchers the opportunity to answer new research questions. We mainly focus on SNPs related to iron and hemoglobin, but there are so many more possibilities with this array.

More information

Donation-related symptoms

December 2016 - We identified subgroups of donors who seem more or less tolerant to donation by using routinely measured data. This was concluded in a recently published paper by the Donor InSight team. The analyses performed by Katja van den Hurk showed that physical donor characteristics, in particular BMI, are consistently associated with pre- and post-donation symptoms. Donors with higher BMI seem more likely to experience positive symptoms and less likely to report negative symptoms than donors with lower BMI.

More information

Donor Conference Visit

December 2016 - In July 2016 Sanquin’s Donor Studies Department visited the 2nd European Conference on Donor Health and Management (ECDHM) in Cambridge, United Kingdom. A total of 5 oral presentations and 5 posters were presented by our team at this international conference that brings together researchers, policy makers and professionals in the field of donor research, blood transfusion and organ transplantation. Elisabeth Huis in ‘t Veld received an award for ‘Best Abstract’ and Katja van den Hurk for ‘Best Oral Presentation’.

More information