pretty interesting stuff... although i am curious as to the degree of longevity the blood will have. Considering the bloodstream also transports waste through the body and has to go through the complicated renal system, i wonder if whether this synthetic blood wouldn't eventually begin to break down. Also apparently all blood substitutes use polyethylene gycols which can migrate into lipids and have toxic effects. And the immune response to long term usage of a blood substitute hasn't really been explored. There is also the fact that once you get this stuff in your system it will mix with your normal blood and to my knowledge there would be no way to get it out... which could become a pretty big problem. but meh, with enough lab trials and clinical tests they will probably develop a pretty solid product -rockon yay for science.
Well... I guess the clinical trials will be vigourous to say the least. But it is a difficult position to choose possibly tainted blood (from donors) vs. possibly toxic blood (synthetic and likely to be toxic in long run)
be a good thing if they can get it to work, im sure they will make it completely safe before using it properly
@dim8sum: most pharmaseutical products we know are not "completely safe" since there is little guarantee of chemicals being "completely safe" espeically with prolonged usage. But it will definitely be reasonably safe by the time it is pushed into the market for commercial use.