Meghana Kesanakurti from the University of Ottawa interviews Dr. Sandra Ramirez. Dr. Ramirez is a Senior Development Scientist in the Process and Products Development Group at the Centre for Innovation. She is also the head of the microbiology laboratory at Canadian Blood Services and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa. In this episode, Dr. Ramirez shares her research on the survival and threat of bacteria such as Staphylococcus in donated blood and how her work addresses this danger.

Learn more: https://med.uottawa.ca/bmi/en/people/ramirez-arcos-sandra

Meghana Kesanakurti (Voice), Meghana Kesanakurti, Sanjeevani Kumar, Natasha Strong, Katia Koziel Ly (Post-production, Content generation, Producers)

0:05 | BEaTS and host introduction.
0:32 | Introduction to Dr. Ramirez.
1:15 | What is Dr. Ramirez's research on blood contamination, and why is it important?
2:35 | Current issues with blood contamination.
3:47 | How bacteria survive in stored blood.
5:30 | What are complements and neutrophils?
6:34 | Why Dr. Ramirez studies Staphylococcus.
8:12 | Systems in place to prevent blood contamination and some of the issues we have with these methods.
11:05 | What issues are being addressed with Dr. Ramirez's future research?
12:17 | Will be able to eliminate bacteria from blood components completely?
14:02 | Conclusion

Soundtrack by The Underground Drive. All rights reserved. Listen more:
https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/the-underground-drive/1571062779
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