Today we’re talking to Peter Rahfeld, CSO of ABOzymes; and we discuss how Peter’s company hopes to make blood types obsolete by being able to change any blood to Type O. Learn about the science and the business behind this breakthrough right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

Learn more at https://www.abozymes.com

About Peter Rahfeld:

During his post-doctoral research at the University of British Columbia, Peter discovered enzymes from the human microbiome that can convert type-A red blood cells to type-O, the universal blood group. This discovery inspired Peter to co-found ABOzymes Biomedical with the vision of making ABO-blood types obsolete and converting all donated blood to O blood.

About ABOzymes:

ABOzymes Biomedical Inc. (pronounced A-B-O-zymes) is a preclinical stage company with an innovative platform that enables a world where a person’s blood type is no longer the first constraint when patients need life-saving organ transplants or blood transfusions.

Our first product, ABOperfusion-A, is an enzyme additive to existing organ preservation solutions that converts the cell surface antigen that determines blood group A to group O, universal donor type.

The antigens that determine blood type are present on all endothelial and epithelial cells. So by converting blood group A organs for transplantation to group O, our technology will:

-Enable more donor organ matching opportunities

-Optimize allocation of donor organs

-Ensure more equitable distribution of donor organs

-Reduce the donor organ wait list times for patients who are difficult to match