Future Program: Smart-Red Blood Cells (Smart-RBC)

The DARPA Smart-RBC program aims to engineer red blood cells to contain novel biological features that can safely and reliably modify human physiology. The program seeks to revolutionize blood products by creating “smart red blood cells” (SRBCs) that can enhance human performance in austere environments and maximize survival via hemostasis products. The program will be broken into two phases, with the first phase focusing on demonstrating the capacity to engineer hematopoietic stem cells and the second phase focusing on producing biological circuits with suitable characteristics and demonstrating functionality. Key aspects of the program include: • Engineering red blood cells with novel biological features • Creating SRBCs that can modify human physiology • Enhancing human performance in austere environments • Maximizing survival via hemostasis products • Producing biological circuits with suitable characteristics • Demonstrating functionality of SRBCs