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A TOURO INTERNIST AND RESEARCHER INSPIRES HER MEDICAL STUDENTS TO STUDY THE SOURCE OF LIFE

“I am teaching them to be patient, very, very patient—the best quality, the highest quality in research is patience,” says Wollocko, an adjunct clinical associate professor of internal medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM). Turns out, she adds, “they are teaching it to me, as I teach it to them.”

By anyone’s standard, Wollocko seems to have an abundance of patience beyond her role at Touro; she is president and CEO of OxyVita, Inc., whose mission has been to create a blood substitute that can be used safely and effectively as an alternative to blood transfusions. For 15 years, she has been conducting studies on blood substitutes, with OxyVita product, which is a polymeric hemoglobin. “We are close,” says Dr. Wollocko, who hopes OxyVita will soon enter clinical trials for FDA approval. “Again, patience and careful, precise research are key.”

Blood shortages are a constant and people are regularly asked by the Red Cross and other organizations to roll up their sleeves. The reason is that blood has a short shelf life. Regulatory statutes allow blood to be transfused for up to 42 days. Then it must be discarded.

But many of the more recent studies, as well as scientist and physician recommendations suggest that the ideal transfuse-by date is closer to 19 days, Wollocko says. “Side effects of using blood older than that can include stroke and heart attack, among other problems. It’s a risk we take when using older blood. We have to pray there are no side effects.”