The 19th International Symposium on Blood Substitutes (ISBS) in 2024 in National Harbor, Maryland, at the gateway to Washington, DC, will champion a time honored tradition of biannual meetings held alternatively in Asia, North America and Europe, to highlight the advances in the science and development of blood substitutes. The international symposium will be targeted on approved products and those in the pipeline, with new attention to the plasma, clotting, and platelet functions of blood and how to mimic them, so that the survival from trauma and acute hemorrhage, when blood is either unavailable or not an option, will be maximized.

This symposium will foster crucial dialogue between academic scientists and researchers, developers of novel resuscitation and oxygenation/anemia/coagulation strategies, Department of Defense and NIH funding sources, and regulatory agencies, to create successful pathways for development and regulatory approval.

Additionally, the symposium will provide an important venue for novel strategies for alternatives to current allogeneic red cell and component therapy, which may be lifesaving, but entail significant risks for patients; new options may improve outcome while decreasing risks. Critical for basic scientists and researchers, to inventors and developers, to military and civilian trauma and resuscitation experts, to acute severe anemia medicine specialists, and to intensive care and emergency medicine practitioners, this Congress will be pivotal to advance the science of blood substitutes.