Scientists in Japan say they have created synthetic blood that has a shelf life of two years at room temperature and can be used on patients with any blood type.

The artificial blood was created by a group of researchers at Nara Medical University, according to a recent report from the Tokyo Weekender. It was created by extracting hemoglobin proteins from expired donor blood. The new universal blood is poised to be a solution to critical shortages in blood supplies across the globe. A large portion of the world’s population has limited access to blood transfusion treatment, but the new blood could reduce preventable deaths in low-income nations.

Clinical trials began in March on the synthetic blood, with Nara Medical University administering up to 400 milliliters of the artificial blood to 16 healthy adults who had volunteered, according to Newsweek. The trial’s next phase will be to see if the volunteers experienced any side effects.

“While this area has long held promise, previous efforts have faced significant challenges, particularly around safety, stability, and oxygen delivery efficacy,” a cell biology professor, Ash Toye, with the School of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, England, said to the news outlet. “This trial will need to demonstrate not only that the artificial blood is safe in humans but that it can perform as reliably as donor blood under a range of clinical conditions.”

“However, as it uses human hemoglobin sourced from blood donors as a starting material, it faces the same challenges in terms of infection risk as human blood.”

Nara Medical University plans to roll out more volunteer safety trials for broader efficacy studies to gain clinical approval to roll out the synthetic blood by 2030.