While Charles Richard Drew was a student at McGill University, he worked with visiting British professor Dr. John Beattie on his research in blood transfusions. It was understood that to avoid negative reactions in a blood transfusion, the donor and recipient blood types (A, B, AB, and O) have to match. Otherwise, the patient's immune system will attack the donated blood cells. At that time, whole blood was usually transfused, and therein was another problem: Whole blood was impossible to preserve for long periods of time, so a method was needed to preserve blood for transfusions so it would be available whenever needed.

Drew found that the red blood cells had a rapid deterioration rate. They are the blood components that carry hemoglobin, which combines with oxygen from the lungs and distributes the oxygen throughout the body. With the red blood cells removed, the liquid portion of blood, the plasma, could be stored practically indefinitely. Plasma, with no red blood cells (which contain the substance that determines blood type), could be used in transfusions without having to match donor and recipient blood types. This was particularly valuable in emergency cases. Drew transformed the test tube method of separating red cells from plasma into a mass-production technique.

Although blood plasma is not a substitute for whole blood in certain kinds of transfusions, it remains in the circulation for a much longer period than the previously used saline or glucose solutions, and it helps prevent or cure shock. In cases of burns, shock (without blood loss), or some cases of anemia in which the main concern is increasing the volume of circulating blood, plasma has been found to be highly valuable.

Using a dehydration process, Drew dried plasma for preservation and convenient transportation. To prepare it for transfusion, the plasma was simply reconstituted with distilled water just before it was to be used. In its reconstituted form, it stays fresh for about four hours. Plasma was found to be viable even a year after storage.

Drew's process of collecting, preserving, and using plasma was invaluable during the years of World War II. Because the demand for plasma was extremely high during the war years, Drew also pioneered the use of trucks equipped with refrigerators ("bloodmobiles") to carry the plasma to those who needed transfusions. Thanks to his work, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved with blood plasma and its ability to stabilize injured people, regardless of blood type.

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