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Blood shortages may soon be a thing of the past. Newly discovered bacterial enzymes in the human gut have been used to turn type A blood into the universally accepted type O much faster than previous methods.

“This technique could broaden the utility of the current blood supply because O type blood can be donated to anybody,” says Steve Withers at the University of British Columbia, who presented this work on 21 August at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. He says it may prove especially useful in remote communities, emergencies situations or armed conflicts if O …