With severe blood disorders, such as leukemia, doctors often rely on leukapheresis, a procedure in which large machines extract whole blood from patients to separate white blood cells from the rest of the blood, which is then returned back to the patient. This procedure is generally used to urgently reduce a dangerously elevated white blood cell count, or to collect various white blood cell subsets for therapeutic purposes. 

Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood, according to America’s Blood Centers, generating a fundamental need to keep the blood supply healthy. A significant part of that process is to remove the white cells (leukocytes) from donated blood.

Casual conversations around the dinner table belonging to a biomedical engineer and a health economist are as interesting as one might expect – and potentially just as productive.

As a Tier One research university, the University of Houston places a strong emphasis on research in and out of the classroom. But for undergraduate students, hands-on laboratory opportunities can be scarce, as researcher spots are usually filled with graduate students and post-doctoral associates.

Sergey Shevkoplyas wants to make one thing perfectly clear: Blood transfusions save millions of lives every year. Without them, routine surgeries would become life threatening. They’re one of modern medicine’s absolute necessities.