Publications & Presentations

Creative Testing Solutions continues to prove its commitment to advancing transfusion safety through active participation in global scientific forums. This summer, our Vice President of Scientific Affairs Dr. Marion Lanteri represented CTS as both a presenter and participant at two major international conferences: the IPFA/PEI 31st International Workshop in Heidelberg, Germany, and the ISBT 2025 Congress in Milan, Italy.

At the IPFA meeting (an organization for which she’s also a board member), Dr. Lanteri engaged with global experts on emerging threats to the blood supply, including zoonotic viruses like rat hepatitis E and avian influenza H5N1, and the resurgence of parvovirus B19. The meeting participants emphasized the importance of advanced surveillance tools such as multiplexed blood screening assays for both molecular and serologic surveillance and future innovative platforms such as capture metagenomics and the BLOODVIR system, in combination with artificial intelligence for data analytics. They also reinforced the role of blood donors as a sentinel population for public health monitoring. Discussions also explored the ethical dimensions of blood safety and the evolving role of pathogen reduction technologies.

Dr. Lanteri's key takeaways from the IFPA meeting were:

1. U.S. plasma collections will keep increasing over the coming years as demand for plasma derived medicinal products will keep increasing in the U.S. and globally. Most countries outside of the U.S. are not self-sufficient in terms of plasma volumes needed and U.S. plasma collections are important to meet the demand.
2. Blood and source plasma safety remains a key focus for all organizations.
3. Beyond safety, keeping high availability for blood and plasma is critical. The team explored ways to increase the donor base and relax deferrals by using additional, sometimes multiplexed, screening assays and pathogen reduction to maintain safety.
4. Preparedness for emerging infectious diseases and response is of high interest, and Marion promoted the use of blood and source plasma donors to perform surveillance studies and prepare for response.

At ISBT, CTS contributed seven scientific abstracts (three oral presentations and four posters; see below for details) highlighting our key contributions in blood safety research. Dr. Lanteri presented findings on the rising rates of parvovirus B19 in North America, confirming a post-COVID outbreak and raising awareness around the need to carefully follow the evolution of parvovirus B19.

CTS also co-authored studies on improved HIV-1 detection using whole blood in addition to plasma. Results reported from the repeat donor cohort highlight the value of blood donor cohorts in tracking infections trends in an evolving SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the expansion of this serosurveillance program to other respiratory viruses to understand reinfection patterns in blood donors. These studies underscore the value of blood donor-based research to inform public health strategies.

Through these interactions, CTS is included as a leader in its field for rigorous scientific inquiry and global collaboration. It’s yet another way that we can promote and support a safe and reliable blood and source plasma supply for patients around the world.

At ISBT 2025, CTS contributed 7 abstracts (3 orals and 4 posters) and was acknowledged in 3 more oral presentations.

CTS Led Oral PA28-L03 – “North American trends in parvovirus B19 plasma reactive rates in 2024 and beyond” was presented on Tuesday, June 3 by Lanteri et al. as part of the session on Safety, inclusivity, and risk assessment and reported the increase in B19 reactive rates over 2024 peaking in June and decreasing through September before increasing again through May 2025 – alerting of a new post-COVID higher level or suggesting an explosive outbreak may be underway in 2025. Teaming up with Canadian Blood Services and HemaQuebec, similar trends were also found in Canada. Blood safety may be a concern in the light of increasing rates.

Co-Authored Oral PA19-L03 – “Improved HIV-1 RNA detection using whole blood (WB) versus plasma in antiretroviral-treated individuals” by Avelino-Silva et al. investigated HIV-1 detectability in paired WB and plasma specimens from well-characterized HIV-1 positive sample panels, using commercially available, high throughput HIV-1 NAT assays adapted for testing WB samples. The findings that an enhanced detectability of HIV nucleic acids was achieved in WB suggest that WB testing would be advantageous for diagnostic investigation of breakthrough infection in persons exposed to PrEP; HIV status ascertainment among persons with HIV under ART with blunted serologic reactivity; and potentially for monitoring of virus rebound following analytic treatment interruption in HIV cure studies. An improved detectability of HIV-1 nucleic acids would be valuable in blood donation screening, potentially reducing the window period, and enhancing identification of breakthrough infection in donors with prior exposure to PrEP, which can lead to reduced viral replication and blunted antibody responses.

Co-Authored Oral PA25-L05 – “Evaluation of multiplexed serology assays for respiratory virus serosurveillance in blood donors” by Sulaeman et al. reported the evaluation of five highly multiplexed, quantitative respiratory virus (RV) antibody (Ab) platforms for detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection, reinfection, and vaccination events in a blinded panel study and the selection of the MSD platform for the RV program.

CTS Led Poster P213 – “Ascertainment of SARS-CoV-2 infections and reinfections and characterization of anti-spike and nucleocapsid antibody levels over multiple infection events” by Lanteri et al. showed that using anti-Nucleocapsid antibody boosting can help find SARS-CoV-2 reinfections. Of donors reportedly uninfected based on surveys, 69% were infected based on serology testing and 43% of infected donors were identified with more reinfections, suggesting many infected donors had asymptomatic or mild infections and did not get diagnosed. The increasing anti-Nucleocapsid and anti-Spike antibody levels reflect progressive population immunity over the period of the study with continued reinfections.

Co-Authored Poster P205 – “Cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 first infections and reinfections and correlates of protection in a large U.S. blood donor cohort, 2022-2023” by Grebe et al. reported findings from the repeat donor cohort (RDC) showing that by Q4 2023 <14% of cohort donors did not demonstrate evidence of infection,44% experienced single infections and 42% had reinfections. Anti-Spike IgG reactivity correlated inversely with susceptibility to first infections and reinfections, and anti-N antibody reactivity with susceptibility to reinfections. This study proved the value of blood donor populations to inform infection incidence and correlates of protection critical to public health surveillance.

Co-Authored Poster P404 – “Evolution of a SARS-CoV-2 repeat blood donor serosurveillance program into a respiratory virus repeat blood donor cohort” by Stone et al. reported that capitalizing on the success of the SARS-CoV-2 Repeat Donor Cohort (RDC) implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, the team established an expanded serosurveillance program in response to evolving public health concerns to endemic and emerging Respiratory Virus (RV) infections. The 5-year program, funded by CDC, will set up a nationwide RV-RDC in the US.

Co-Authored Poster P208 – “SARS-CoV-2 ancestral and variant-specific antibody titers in blood donors with prior infection, prior vaccination or hybrid immunity: correlations with protection against omicron infections” by Avelino-Silva et al. showed that higher anti-Spike antibody levels were associated with lower odds of infection and reinfection with omicron variants, in vaccinated, infected, and hybrid immunity groups. In contrast, no statistically significant associations were found between cross-reactive binding or neutralizing antibody responses against omicron, generated during pre-omicron immune-modifying events, and the odds of omicron infection. These findings showed the modest impact of prior infection and vaccination-induced immunity on protection from evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Dr. Mars Stone acknowledged CTS during her presentation during the Big Data working group meeting. Here, the group promoted blood donor-based research for its potential to inform public health policies using the example of the Repeat Donor Cohort Program for the serosurveillance of SARS-CoV-2 expanding to include other respiratory viruses. Dr. Laura Tonnetti also acknowledged CTS during her presentation as part of the Roche Satellite Symposium and the session on Blood safety in a changing world: emerging pathogens. The latter session shared the results from the CMV NAT Roche trial conducted in collaboration with the ARC Scientific Support Office for which CTS provided samples from June 2023 to February 2025. The trial showed the increment value of testing blood donations for CMV DNA instead of CMV antibodies with a CMV DNA-positive/antibody-negative donation otherwise missed by CMV serology testing.