DARPA is funding a redoubled effort to develop a shelf-stable substitute for what field medics and trauma doctors need most: more blood. The goal is a dual-chamber bag holding a freeze-dried hemoglobin product called Erythro Mer alongside sterilized water. Medics would carry these bags into the field and rapidly rehydrate the product for quick transfusions.
The urgency is rooted in tragedy. In February 2007, the Morphine 1-2 casualty evacuation helicopter was shot down near Karmah in Iraq's Al-Anbar province while on a daylight "blood run," a high-priority mission to bring blood back to the front. All seven crew members were killed. Lieutenant Commander Robert Murray, a Navy officer and DARPA program manager who studied the incident as an intelligence officer, explains that blood resupply ranked among the highest priorities.
The shortage extends well beyond the battlefield. About 90% of preventable battlefield deaths are caused by hemorrhage, and it is the leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide. A 2025 study in Transfusion found that just 1% of 1.2 million US trauma patients who potentially needed blood received it before reaching a hospital. Whole blood lasts only 35 days refrigerated, while platelets last a week or less at room temperature, and thawed frozen components spoil within days.
To address these limits, Murray leads RAPIID, a new $73 million DARPA program aimed at creating shelf-stable versions of plasma, platelets and red blood cells. It builds on FSHARP, a prior $47.5 million project that showed promising results in animals.
Source: MIT Technology Review · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing