Artificially created blood could one day replace donations as the norm for blood transfusions.

That's according to researchers at the University of Edinburgh who have been using stem cells to create red blood cells.

And in 2016 they are planning to conduct a groundbreaking trial that, for the first time, will test artificial blood made from stem cells in patients.

The £5 million project is being pioneered by the University of Edinburgh and comes after years of research into growing red blood cells. 

The process involves using adult skin or blood cells that have been genetically modified into stem cells, known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.

The trick so far has been increasing the efficiency of this transition process, as not all the cells are capable of becoming red blood cells.

The team at the University of Edinburgh has got this efficiency to approaching 50% in a process that takes about a month. 

The red blood cells are then separated from the rest of the cells in a centrifuge.

Their next step will be to trial the blood in patients in 2016.

This will most likely be three patients who need regular transfusions due to a red blood cell disorder known as thalassaemia.

This graphic shows how the artificial red blood cells are made from stem cells in the team's research

According to Professor Marc Turner, artificial blood could replace donated blood as the norm for transfusions in the next 20 years

Ideally, artificial blood would be made from a person of the rare universal blood type 'O' as this can be transfused into other patients of any blood type.

'Producing a cellular therapy which is of the scale, quality and safety required for human clinical trials is a very significant challenge,' says Professor Marc Turner, medical director at Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) who is leading the study for the University of Edinburgh. 

'But if we can achieve success with this first-in-man clinical study it will be an important step forward to enable populations all over the world to benefit from blood transfusions.

'These developments will also provide information of value to other researchers working on the development of cellular therapies.'

It was stressed, however, that it will be at least 20 years until artificial blood overtakes donated blood as the source for blood transfusions and that people should not stop donating any time soon.

If artificial blood does one day become the norm, however, it is hoped the cost of blood per unit could drop from the current price of £120.

Artificial blood may also carry with it health advantages due to blood regeneartion.

Blood cells last around 100 days but not all cells are born at the same moment, so donated blood is a mixture of old and new cells.

Artifical blood, on the other hand, would be entirely new blood cells.

The major problem at the moment is scaling up production from a trial to industrial levels. 

Nonetheless if the trial proves to be a success, it would be a big step in the right direction towards making blood transfusions more widely available at a reasonable cost.