News

Sep 2019   Sofia was a 3 year old in Ukraine who nearly drowned and was left in a coma. Sofia now leads an ordinary life, thanks to cord blood from her baby sister and lots of rehabilitation.

Sep 2019   HEMAFUND cord blood bank in Kyiv Ukraine has provided cord blood to help over 360 children who needed surgery shortly after birth. This includes over 174 children with complex critical congenital heart defects. The CorD Program makes it possible to identify children with serious heart defects in utero, arrange to collect their cord blood at birth, and rush the children to surgery supported by cord blood within hours of birth. The CorD Program is a partnership of HEMAFUND with the Scientific-Practical Medical Center of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery led by Prof. Illya Emec. HEMAFUND is committed to medical research and public health programs that may improve the lives of families in the Ukraine.

Sep 2019   Cord blood is a serious competitor in cell therapy for stroke because it is available off the shelf and HLA matching of MNC can be relaxed. Recent trials are pushing the envelope of just how much matching is needed for allogeneic cord blood. In cell therapy trials for stroke over the time Jan. 2018 - July 2019, the top two cell sources were bone marrow (43%) and cord blood (18%), and the top two cell types were MSC (49%) and MNC (35%).

Aug 2019   A savior child can provide cord blood that is a match to an older sibling that needs a stem cell transplant. Conceiving a savior child requires Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT) that screens embryos to both exclude genetic diseases and include matching HLA types. To avoid a slippery slope into creating designer babies, the clinics that perform PGT should adhere to ethical guidelines.

Aug 2019   Most of the clients of Cryo-Save in Europe can now find their children’s biological material stored with the bank PBKM Famicord. Parents are advised to verify the status of their children’s samples.

Jul 2019   Itzel Cervantes had a successful cord blood transplant to treat recurring leukemia. The cord blood that saved her life had been in storage for 12 years before it was called from the StemCyte public bank. More than 5 years after her transplant, Itzel remains healthy, with no serious side effects, and is thriving.

Jul 2019   Patients need unrelated cord blood donors, but public cord blood banks that stand alone have struggled to survive financially. In honor of Cord Blood Awareness month, we review alternative business models for public cord blood banks: hybrid banking, crossover banking, and community or pool banking. We also do the math to demonstrate that community or pool banking is a financially viable support for public banks and fills unmet public health needs.

Jul 2019   Cellsure is the only company in the United States that fully integrates public donation and private storage of newborn stem cells, because every mother that participates with CellSure is a donor. Cellsure is the only company in the world that offers placenta banking as an alternative to cord blood banking. CellSure is poised to disrupt the traditional business model of cord blood banking.

Jun 2019   Within the next year, the Perinatal Stem Cell Society is organizing 3 conferences. We will have our own day at Cord Blood Connect on 12 Sept. 2019, our annual meeting is in Salt Lake City in March 2020, and our first European event will be in Czech Republic May 2020. We are also introducing new membership benefits and asking members to begin paying dues.

Jun 2019   Our results are the first evidence that multiple doses of cord blood are better for improved long term outcomes. Using rats to model perinatal brain injury, we compared our control groups to therapy with a single dose of cord blood versus 3 doses over a week. Ultimately we hope to improve the design of human clinical trials and help children and families living with cerebral palsy.