BSRI's history in transfusion science is based on more than 50 years of leadership, research and policy-making. We've spent those years ensuring a safe and adequate blood supply, amassing scientific expertise, and breaking ground in areas previously unimagined. We've met challenges, taken risks and become pioneers in our field.

We are proud to house some of the nation's top transfusion science researchers, experts in the field of such transfusion transmitted-infections as human T cell lymphotropicvirus (HTLV), hepatitis C and HIV, and emerging diseases like Chagas and West Nile virus. Our areas of research encompass:

• Transfusion-transmitted infections and virology
• Donor behavior
• Cost-effectiveness of testing and donor deferrals
• Transfusion immunology
• Genotype analysis of blood group polymorphisms
• Microchimerism
• New virus discovery
• Cellular therapies

Our history begins in 1959 in San Francisco as a research program of the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank, the nation's first community blood bank. In 1997, Irwin merged with Peninsula Blood Bank to become Blood Centers of the Pacific (BCP). Two years later, BCP affiliated with Blood Systems, Inc., (BSI) the nation's second largest blood collection organization. BSRI became a separate division of BSI in 2004.