Information for COBE 2991 Sunsetting 

AABB is offering information and resources to the blood community to assist in developing alternative methods for processing rare red blood cell and platelet units amid the planned sunset of the COBE 2991 device. (The device is currently being phased out and sunset completion is scheduled for March 2031.)

News

AABB is currently crafting an Association Bulletin that will describe the challenges surrounding the sunset of the Terumo COBE 2991 Cell Processor and steps that the blood community can take to plan for this eventuality.

A working group of AABB’s Technical Practices, Serology and Genomics Subsection meets monthly to discuss this issue with report-outs of their work to the Technical Practices, Serology and Genomics Subsection, which meets the first Tuesday of every other month at 2:00 p.m. (ET). If you would like an invite to this meeting, please contact AABB at standards@aabb.org

Resources

Below are a number of resources (articles, validation protocols, etc.) available to assist users in their preparation:

• AM24-SN-08-L: The Changing Landscape of Managing a Rare Blood Frozen Inventory (2024 AABB Annual Meeting session)
• Manual Washing of Platelets Protocol
• Quality of red blood cells washed using a second wash sequence on an automated cell processor (Transfusion article)
• Impact of input volume on red cell quality in deglycerolized RBCs using a modified ACP-215 protocol (Transfusion article)
• Deglycerolization of manually glycerolized, frozen red cell concentrates using a closed system cell processor (Transfusion article)
• Automated processing of Meryman-frozen red blood cells: A novel protocol for Deglycerolization (Transfusion article)
• Feasibility of a closed-system cell processor (ACP215) for automated preparation of washed platelet concentrates (Vox Sanguinis article)
• Washing of platelets can be fully automated using a closed system cell processor and BRS-A platelet additive solution (Vox Sanguinis article)