Scientists Engineer Blood Clots That Stop Severe Bleeding in Seconds
NEWS | 09 May 2026
Blood clots are the body's built-in way of staunching blood loss. In the right circumstances, they can save your life. Scientists have now developed new custom-made blood clots that form faster and last longer than the natural versions. They're called engineered blood clots, or EBCs, and are created via a technique called "click clotting" – via blood from the patient, or from a donor. The idea is that one day these super-clots – which form in seconds – could be applied as emergency patches for surgeries and accidents. The team behind the clotting technology, from institutions across Canada and the US, is confident that their EBCs can help plug severe bleeding and support quicker tissue healing. It could be of particular help for those with blood-clotting disorders. "Natural blood clots can be slow to form and mechanically fragile, which limits their ability to stop severe bleeding and can compromise healing," says mechanical engineer Jianyu Li from McGill University in Canada. "Our work shows that, when engineered appropriately, red blood cells can play a central structural role, enabling the design of stronger and more functional biomaterials." The use of red blood cells is significant: These cells form almost half the volume of clots when they form naturally, but aren't particularly strong in a mechanical sense, which means they can be prone to fracturing. What the researchers did was to turn red blood cells into more sturdy building materials by triggering microscopic chemical reactions to bind them together. These chemical reactions are speedy and safe – and the bioengineered clot can be added to a natural clot in the form of a gel called a cytogel. Previous attempts to create improved clots have focused more on fibrin fibers that provide structural strength. They're tougher and more substantial, but make up just a small fraction (less than a single percent) of natural blood clots. With the new approach, the building materials were boosted, rather than the scaffolding. The EBCs developed by the researchers, and tested in the lab and in rat models, proved to be 13 times more resistant to fracturing and four times more adhesive than natural blood clots. The tests showed no signs of a dangerous immune system reaction or any toxicity in the process of successfully repairing an injured rat liver. According to the team, the super-clot gel can be prepared quickly: in about 10 minutes for its allogeneic form (using type-matched donor blood), and in about 20 minutes for its autologous form (using the patient's own blood). "Given typical clinical time constraints, this approach has strong potential for in-patient emergency care, wound management, and related settings," says Li. You might be more familiar with the dangerous type of blood clots, which form inside blood vessels and can block blood flow in the lungs or to the brain. These kinds of clots can be life-threatening, rather than life-saving. But the new EBCs could be useful here too. If someone is on blood thinners to reduce the chances of a harmful clot, their body's ability to create beneficial blood clots is also reduced. The cytogel could then make an even bigger difference to blood clot strength and stability. There's still plenty of work to do here. The "click clotting" technique has only been tested in rats so far, and the research team needs to see how these EBCs perform in real-world, clinical situations as well. The EBCs also need to be 'fine-tuned' to change different qualities of the blood clot, to match different scenarios – from repairing organs to stopping arterial bleeding (the cytogel isn't yet strong enough to block high-pressure bleeds, for example). Related: Our Perception of Time Can Actually Speed Up Wound Healing Even with those limitations, these initial results are promising. Together with other methods being explored, we may one day have reliable ways to enhance our built-in blood clotting powers. "Engineered blood clots have strong potential for broad clinical use and could improve outcomes across many medical situations," says Li. The research has been published in Nature.
Author: David Nield.
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