Public Cord Blood Banks in the USA

This Foundation constantly receives inquiries from expectant parents who want to donate their cord blood.  We have tried to reorganize this page to give you the facts you need as quickly and simply as possible:

• Click here to find out if your delivery hospital collects donations

• Click here to enroll for mail-in donation to the national program

• Another option is mail-in donation to clinical trial run by LifebankUSA

• How public banks work to collect donations

• Why public banking is limited

• Who is eligible to donate

• Find public banks that collect cord blood in your state (if any)
  

If you wish to donate your child's cord blood, the mother must register with a collection program by the 34th week of pregnancy and the mother must pass a health history screening. 

This web page lists all of the public cord blood banks in the US that accept donations.  Most donation programs are affiliated with specific hospitals: you can only donate your child's cord blood if the baby is delivered at one of the those hospitals.  There are less than 200 hospitals that collect cord blood donations in the US; typically they are hospitals that deliver many babies from an ethnically diverse patient population.  There are also a few public banks that accept a limited number of mail-in donations.

Over half of the cord blood collections donated to public banks are discarded because they are below the size thresholds required by public banks.  The banks which collect mail-in donations have an even higher discard rate.  Those donations which are accepted for permanent storage are listed anonymously on a public registry that can be searched by patients seeking a donor.  About 70% of patients who need a stem cell transplant do not have a matching donor in their own family, and cord blood donations are particularly helpful to patients who have minority or mixed ancestry.

Most (but not all!) of the public cord blood banks in the US participate in the national cord blood inventory maintained by the National Marrow Donor Program, NMDP (their mission has expanded beyond their name). 

NMDP brochure in English
NMDP brochure en Espanol

It costs a public bank over one thousand dollars for each cord blood collection that gets processed for storage.  In order to accept donations for free, the bank must have income to support the laboratory. That income may come from federal funding, it may come from the profit margin of private banking, it may come from selling some of the donations to research programs, or some combination of the above. To learn more about how the banking industry works, see the pages about Types of Cord Blood Banks and Cost of Banking.

Not everyone is eligible to donate cord blood, and not all cord blood collections are suitable for public storage.  The NMDP has an abbreviated list of the eligibility guidelines for expectant mothers.  For more detailed information, visit our page on Informed Consent.

Ask your childbirth caregiver if she or he will charge for collecting cord blood.  Many doctors charge over $100 for this procedure, even if the patient is donating the blood for the public good.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: none
INTERNET: www.sandiegobloodbank.org
PHONE: 619-296-6393 extension 8327
STORAGE: San Diego, CA
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
Currently not collecting cord blood.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants & Research
COLLECTS FROM: Statewide planned
INTERNET: cordbloodbankarkansas.org
PHONE:  501-686-7203 or bivy@UAMS.edu
STORAGE: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES:  none yet

DESCRIPTION:
The Cord Blood Bank of Arkansas has not started operations.

In 2007 the state of Arkansas passed a Newborn Umbilical Cord Initiative Act that  encourages tax payers to donate their tax refund towards the creation of a statewide cord blood banking program.  The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) will host the bank.  UAMS is the only comprehensive academic health center in Arkansas, and already hosts a stem cell laboratory.  The medical director of the stem cell lab, pathologist Michele Fox M.D., will direct the cord blood bank.

Current plans (Aug 2010) call for the Cord Blood Bank of Arkansas to have a hybrid business model, offering both public and private cord blood banking.  Services will be available statewide, with couriers to transport the blood.  At present, interested parties should contact Brooke Ivy, Associate Director of Development at UAMS.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: none
INTERNET: www.bonfils.org/index.cfm/about-donating/cord-blood/
PHONE: 303-363-2345 or Email Patty Owens
STORAGE: Denver, CO
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
Currently not collecting cord blood.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: Christiana Hospital in Delaware
INTERNET: theBradyKohnFoundation.org
PHONE: 302-765-2875
STORAGE: New Jersey Cord Blood Bank in Paramus, NJ.
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
The Brady Kohn Foundation sends donations to the New Jersey Cord Blood Bank, which participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network. 

The Brady Kohn Founation is a non-profit organization which operates a cord blood donation program at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, which delivers more than 7,000 babies a year.  The program is a collaboration between volunteer medical staff working with The Brady Kohn Foundation and the New Jersey Cord Blood Bank at Community Blood Services in Allendale, NJ.  Volunteers from Brady Kohn train medical staff, educate parents, and deliver cord blood collections to the laboratory.

As of June 2009, Brady Kohn also collects from St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware.

Like the Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation, the Brady Kohn Foundation was established as a public service in memory of a child who died of a blood disease.  At age two and a half, Brady Kohn acquired a virus which destroyed his immune system and gave him aplastic anemia.  He underwent a cord blood transplant with his own blood that had been saved at birth, but died of complications.  The Brady Kohn Foundation registered in 2003 as a 501(c)3 human health and welfare nonprofit organization.  The stated mission of The Brady Kohn Foundation is funding umbilical cord blood banking, research, and education. 

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston
INTERNET:
www.brighamandwomens.org/womenshealth/corddonor/
PHONE: 800-875-3324
STORAGE: Carolinas Cord Blood Bank, Durham, NC
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP

DESCRIPTION:

The Brigham and Women's cord blood donation program sends donations to the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank, which participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network. 

This program is a joint effort of the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute (aka Dana Farber Brigham and Women's Cancer Care).  The Brigham and Women's cord blood donation program does NOT require advance registration, although they would appreciate a heads-up when a mother who would like to donate is admitted.  Their staff are available to counsel mothers and obtain Informed Consent between 8AM and 8PM Monday through Friday.  This type of collection model has the advantage that mother's don't have to register far in advance, but the downside is that it is only available when collecting staff are on duty.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: Several hospitals in North Carolina
INTERNET: www.cancer.duke.edu/ccbb
PHONE: 919-668-1116
STORAGE: Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP

DESCRIPTION:

This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.   The Carolinas Cord Blood Bank is accredited under the international FACT/Netcord standards.  Carolinas CBB belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

Carolinas Cord Blood Bank is 1 of 3 banks in the NMDP pilot study of MAIL-IN DONATIONS.  The study has been profiled in TIME magazine and other media reports.  The 3 banks have funding to send collection kits to expectant mothers who enroll.  The mother's caregiver receives a 10 minute on-line training course in cord blood collection.  The program will run for one year or until 500 collections are saved.

The Director of Carolinas Cord Blood Bank is Joanne Kurtzberg M.D., of Duke University.

The Carolinas Cord Blood Bank opened in January 1998 with the support of the National Institute of Health (NIH)/ National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) sponsored Cord Blood Transplantation Study (COBLT). In 2006, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank a contract to participate in the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI) of the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program. Current Carolinas Cord Blood Bank collection hospitals include:

1. Duke North Hospital at Duke University Med. Ctr., Durham, NC
2. Durham Regional Hospital, Durham, NC
3. Memorial Hospital at the Univ. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC   
4. WakeMed Cary Hospital, Cary, NC    
5. Rex Hospital, Raleigh, NC   
6. Women’s Hospital of Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
7. Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, NC
   
8. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
   

The goals of the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank at Duke are:

• To build a large and diverse inventory or "bank", of cord blood units so people in need of a bone marrow transplant will have a better chance of finding an adequate match.
  
• To study the best ways to collect, process and transplant cord blood.
• To provide the highest quality source of ethnically diverse cord blood units available to the public for transplantation.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County, CA.
INTERNET: www.choc.org/services/index.cfm?id=P00191
PHONE: 714-516-4335 or Email cbb-coordinators@choc.org
STORAGE: Children's Hospital of Orange County, Irvine, CA
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
This bank  participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.

As of July 2010, St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County is still the only collection site.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants & Research
COLLECTS FROM: Florida, Michigan, and North Carolina
INTERNET: www.corduse.com
PHONE: 407-667-4844
OFFICE: Lake Mary, Florida
STORAGE: Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  CORD:USE is accredited under the international FACT/Netcord standards (as of Jan 2009).  In Aug. 2009, CORD:USE joined the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.
 
CORD:USE is a for-profit corporation founded in June 2004 to collect cord blood donations for public use.  It is their hope that increased utilization of cord blood will enable them to turn a profit and allow them to continue to increase the number of units in their inventory.

CORD:USE contracts with the laboratory of the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank at Duke University Medical Center.  The medical director of CORD:USE is Joanne Kurtzberg, M.D. of Duke University.  CORD:USE collections are stored in a separate BioArchive freezer.  CORD:USE only accepts collections from medical centers where they have trained the staff.  The collection may be performed by dedicated personnel or by OB/Gyn's and midwives.  CORD:USE training allows staff to either  collect cord blood "in utero", prior to delivery of the placenta, or to collect "ex utero", by draining cord blood from the placenta after it has been delivered.

CORD:USE only archives collections which contain a minimum of one billion mononuclear cells, the highest collection threshold employed by any public bank as of Feb 2006.  Smaller collections are used for research programs that collaborate with Dr. Kurtzberg.

As of August 2009, the CORD:USE collection sites are:

1. Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies, Orlando, FL
2. South Miami Hospital, Miama, FL
   
3. Oakwood Hospital, Dearborn, MI
   
4. Women's Hospital of Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
5. Rex Hospital, Raleigh, NC
   

On 11 Feb 2010, CORD:USE announced a partnership with the Memorial Healthcare System, the fifth-largest public healthcare system in the nation.

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This bank is now listed under New Jersey Cord Blood Bank.

COLLECTS FOR: Research &  Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: ANYWHERE!
INTERNET: www.cryo-intl.com/enroll/donating
PHONE: 800-869-8608
STORAGE: Altamonte Springs, FL

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES:  NMDP, BMDW, CRIR

DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network. 

Cryobanks International is the only public bank whose business model is based on collecting mail-in donations.  They started as a private cord blood bank and still offer family banking services.  The Scientific and Medical Board of Advisors is profiled on their website.

Cord blood donations which are not eligible for unrelated transplants will go towards one of the research projects in which Cryobanks Intnl participates.

Cryobanks Intnl helped draft the legislation for the cord blood donation programs in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and several others.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants, Research, family banks
COLLECTS FROM: 7 hospitals in Pennsylvania
INTERNET: DanBergerCordBlood.com or this link at UPMC
PHONE: 412-209-7479 or 412-327-6025
STORAGE: ITxM in Chicago, Illinois

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES:  NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
The Dan Berger Cord Blood Program sends donations to the public cord blood bank ITxM in Chicago, which participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  The Institute of Transfusion Medicine (ITxM) is also the parent company of Pittsburgh's central blood bank.

This program was launched in Oct 2007 in memory of Dan Berger, a Pittsburgh attorney who underwent a successful stem cell transplant to overcome cancer, but then tragically died of a heart attack in 2006.  The program coordinator is Mary Wiegel, mwiegel@itxm.org .  The program is a public-private partnership between: UPMC Health Plan, Highmark Foundation, ITxM, and the family cord blood banks CBR, CorCell, and ViaCord.

How the program works:

• Parents receive education about their cord blood options:
• One option is to donate to the public bank at ITxM to help patients in need of stem cell transplants.
• Second option is to donate to medical research for the benefit of mankind.
• Third option is to bank for your family at a private bank, such as CBR, CorCell or ViaCord.

Established collection centers (as of August 2009):

• Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC (Pittsburgh, PA)
• UPMC Mercy (Pittsburgh, PA)
• St. Clair Hospital (Pittsburgh, PA)
• UPMC Northwest (Seneca, PA)
• UPMC Horizon-Shenango Valley (Farrell, PA)
• Indiana Regional Medical Center (Indiana, PA)
• St. Vincent Medical Center (Erie, PA) 
• Sharon Regional Health System  (Sharon, PA) 
• Trinity Health System  (Steubenville, OH)

Soon to be added collection centers (as of August 2009):

• The Midwife Center  (Pittsburgh, Pa)
• West Penn Hospital  (Pittsburgh, Pa)
• West Penn Hospital—Forbes Campus   (Pittsburgh, Pa)
• Hamot Medical Center  (Erie, Pa)
• Weirton Medical Center  (Weirton, WV)

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This program is now listed under New Jersey Cord Blood Bank.

COLLECTS FOR: Family
COLLECTS FROM:  Anywhere, but for a fee
INTERNET: www.familycord.com
PHONE: 800-490-CORD (2673)
STORAGE: Los Angeles, CA

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES:
none yet (to be listed after ten years storage, see below)
DESCRIPTION:
FamilyCord is primarily a private cord blood bank, but parents are also offered a Public Donation Option^SM .  In order to be eligible, the maternal blood test and the cord blood must both pass all the medical requirements for public donation, and the parents must agree to privately store the cord blood for 10 years before releasing it.  This program costs an additional $250 on top of the regular private banking fee.  The additional charge helps defray the $400 cost of HLA typing the cord blood so that it can be listed on a donor registry.  If the cord blood is released for a transplant, parents are reimbursed for the processing and any storage fees.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: Brooklyn, NY
INTERNET: www.giftoflife.org or www.jcord.org
PHONE: 1-800-9MARROW
STORAGE: U. Mass. Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, MA

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, CRIR, NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network. 

Gift of Life was founded in 1991 to seek a matching donor for leukemia patient Jay Feinberg.  The last donor tested turned out to be a perfect match!  Since then, the charity has evolved into a vehicle for bone marrow donor recruitment, focused on the international Jewish community.  In 2005, they launched the Gift of Life cord blood program which collects from Maimonides hospital in Brooklyn, NY.  The cost of the program is borne by Gift of Life fund-raising.  In order for the donations to be listed on the NMDP network, obstetricians who collect for Gift of Life must undergo training and regular proficiency testing.

Gift of Life operates a cord blood laboratory at the U. Mass. Memorial Medical Center that has AABB accreditation.  The laboratory director is Philip Lowry, M.D.

There are research publications on "HLA polymorphism" among people of Jewish heritage (go to PubMed and search on these keywords), which show that they are more likely to find a donor match in their own ethnic type, and next among other Mediterranean groups.

The Gift of Life laboratory also provides family banking services via the company AlphaCord, where they are listed as the Massachusetts stem cell bank.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  Hospitals on the Island of Oahu
INTERNET: www.hcbb.org
PHONE: 808-983-BANK  or Email  info@hcbb.org
STORAGE: Puget Sound Blood Center, Seattle, WA
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network. 

The Hawaii Cord Blood Bank works in conjunction with the Puget Sound Blood Center in Seattle, Washington, where cord blood units collected in Hawaii are transported for processing and storage. Once banked, these units are registered on a computer database as belonging to the Hawaii Cord Blood Bank, and are universally available.  The hospitals participating in the Hawaii Cord Blood Bank program deliver approximately 75% of the babies born on the island of Oahu, which has 75% of the State's population. This community based approach, and Hawaii's unique racial demographics, make Hawaii Cord Blood Bank an important resource of ethnically diverse cord blood units.  The history of this "Bank without Walls" is described on their website.

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This program is now listed under Midwest Cord Blood Bank.

COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:
INTERNET:
PHONE: (216) 844-4723
STORAGE: Cleveland, OH
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
Cleveland Cord Blood Center belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: 36 hospitals in Illinois and 4 in Pennsylvania
INTERNET: www.givcord.org
PHONE: 877-448-2673
STORAGE: Glenview, IL

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.

The Institute for Transfusion Medicine (ITxM), with headquarters in Pittsburgh, is the parent company of multiple blood-banking concerns, including the Central Blood Bank which serves the Pittsburgh area, the LifeSource blood bank which serves the Chicago area, the subsidiary ITxM Diagnostics, and the subsidiary ITxM Clinical Services which includes the Cord Blood Services.  The cord blood bank initially served the Chicago area, but has been expanding to cover more of Illinois and parts of Pennsylvania.  Illinois was one of the frist staes to pass legislation requiring expectant parents to be educated about cord blood banking, in Jan 2004.

Here is the current list of participating hospitals.  The collection sites in Pennsylvania are all part of the Dan Berger Cord Blood Program. 

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: 5 hospitals near Detroit
INTERNET: www.karmanos.org/cordblood
PHONE: 800-KARMANOS
STORAGE: Detroit, MI

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network. 

This bank was founded in 2001 with funding from The J.P. McCarthy Fund and the Carls Foundation.  J.P. McCarthy was Detroit’s beloved News/Talk 760 WJR morning radio show host for 30 years. He died of Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) in August 1995 at the age of 62, just six weeks after diagnosis. His wife, Judy, established the J.P. McCarthy Fund to search for a cure for MDS.

As of Feb 2009, collections are taken at the following hospitals:

• Bay Park Community Hospital in northern OH
  
• Hutzel Hospital in Detroit, MI
  
• Providence Hospital and Medical Center in Southfield, MI
  
• Providence Park Hospital in Novi, MI
• St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: Brooklyn, NY
INTERNET: [no website]
PHONE: 718-384-2332
STORAGE: unknown

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
Kehila Cord (no website) is sponsored by Dor Yeshorim and serves the Chasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. This is a community which has very little contact with the outside world; the program is promoted by word-of-mouth. Dor Yeshorim was founded in the 1980's by Rabbi Josef Ekstein to offer genetic testing prior to arranged marriages, in an effort to prevent the spread of fatal hereditary diseases. Rabbi Ekstein lost four of his own children to Tay-Sachs disease. In 2005, Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz (718-218-8180) launched a drive in community synagogues to encourage parents to donate cord blood.  For more information, contact Kehila Cord at 718-384-2332 (office: 429 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 1121).

Prior to 2010, the cord blood was processed and stored at Community Blood Services (part of the NMDP bank network) in Paramus, NJ. The cost of the program was borne by both the Elie Katz Umbilical Cord Blood Program and Kehila Cord.

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COLLECTS FOR: Research & Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: ANYWHERE!
INTERNET: www.lifebankusa.com
PHONE: 1-877-LIFEBANKUSA (1-877-543-3226)
STORAGE: Cedar Knolls, NJ

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: CRIR
DESCRIPTION:

LifebankUSA accepts cord blood and placenta donations from anywhere in the continental United States.  LifebankUSA and its parent company, Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, use the stem cells from the cord blood and the placenta for a variety of applications, which include: international cord blood registries (similar to bone marrow registries), research, clinical studies and other clinical applications. 

Call LifebankUSA at 1-877-LIFEBANKUSA/1-877-543-3226 for more information.  Please note that you will be required to submit forms, including your consent and a medical health screening questionnaire.  LifebankUSA may not be able to accept all donation requests due to a variety of reasons, which include the volume of requests, family health history, and specific donation needs at that time.
 
The screening process requires a minimum of four weeks lead-time prior to your due date.  There is no fee to donate your cord blood and placenta to LifebankUSA, however, it is recommended that you confirm with your doctor that there will be no fee to collect them.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  Selected hospitals in north Florida and south Alabama
INTERNET: http://www.lifesouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84&Itemid=125
PHONE: 888-795-2707 or 352-224-1737
STORAGE: Shands Hospital at Univ of Florida, Gainesville, FL

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program  (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  LifeCord belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

LifeCord is a program of LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, developed in cooperation with the University of Florida College of Medicine and the Shands at UF Stem Cell Laboratory. The medical director of LifeCord is John R. Wingard, M.D., director of the transplant program at Shands.  

As of Aug 2010, collections are accepted from:

• North Florida Regional Medical Center, Gainesville FL
  
• Shands Teaching Hospital at University of Florida, Gainesville FL
• Baptist East Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama
• Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama
• Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama
• East Alabama Medical Center, Opelika, Alabama
  

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  Selected hospitals in Houston, Texas
INTERNET: www.mdanderson.org/cordbloodwww.mdanderson.org/app/cbb/
PHONE: 866-869-5111 or 713-563-8000
STORAGE: M. D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW
DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  M.D. Anderson Cord Blood Bank is accredited under the international FACT/Netcord standards.  M.D. Anderson belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

M.D. Anderson Cord Blood Bank is 1 of 3 banks in the NMDP pilot study of MAIL-IN DONATIONS.  The study has been profiled in TIME magazine and other media reports.  The 3 banks have funding to send collection kits to expectant mothers who enroll.  The mother's caregiver receives a 10 minute on-line training course in cord blood collection.  The program will run for one year or until 500 collections are saved.

M.D. Anderson hospital has the largest stem cell transplantation program in the world, and in April 2005 they established a cord blood bank.   The bank director is Elizabeth Shpall, M.D., and the laboratory director is John McMannis, Ph.D.  The bank collects umbilical cords from consenting maternity patients at selected hospitals in the Houston area.  

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: 15 hospitals throughout Michigan
INTERNET: www.miblood.org/giving_blood/cordblood.html
PHONE: 1-866-642-5663 (ie: 866-MIBLOOD, option #2) or 616-233-8604
STORAGE: Grand Rapids, MI

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, CRIR
DESCRIPTION:
Michigan Cord Blood Bank will mail a collection kit to a qualifying donor if you register ahead of your due date and will be delivering at one of the hospitals in the state at which Michigan Community Blood Services operates a blood bank.  These hospitals are: 

1. Bay Regional Medical Center, Bay City MI
2. Covenant Medical Center -Harrison Campus, Saginaw, MI
3. Hackley Hospital, Muskegon, MI
4. Holland Hospital, Holland, MI
5. Lakeland Hospital-St Joseph, St  Joseph, MI
6. Lakeland Community Hospital-Niles, Niles, MI
7. Mercy General Hospital, Muskegon, MI
8. Metro Health Hospital, Wyoming, MI
9. Mid-Michigan Medical Center, Clare, MI
10. Mid-Michigan Medical Center, Midland, MI
11. Munson Medical Center, Traverse City, MI
12. North Ottawa Community Hospital, Grand Haven, MI
13. Spectrum Health-Butterworth Campus, Grand Rapids, MI
    
14. St. Mary's Hospital, Grand Rapids, MI
    
15. Zeeland Community Hospital, Zeeland, MI
    

The parents bring the collection kit to the hospital at delivery time and their OB/Gyn or midwife performs the collection.  The blood bank provides courier service to bring the cord blood to the central laboratory.  The cord blood is processed with a procedure similar to that developed at the NY Blood Center.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants and Research
COLLECTS FROM: Clarian Health Network, St. Vincent’s Women’s Hospital and Hendricks Regional Hospital (Transplants) and other Indiana Hospitals (Research only at this time)
INTERNET:  www.midwestcordbloodbank.org
PHONE: 800-804-6703
STORAGE: General BioTechnology, Indianapolis, IN

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, working towards NMDP participation

DESCRIPTION:
The Midwest Cord Blood Bank is a public banking division of the Indianapolis-based private bank, Genesis Bank. 

The public cord blood collection program in Indiana was begun to capitalize on the diversity of the population in the Midwest and to take advantage of this medical resource that was being discarded. Many people may benefit both directly and indirectly through the generosity of others by cord blood donations. Those in need of a blood stem cell transplant may benefit from this gift, and cutting edge research into enhanced use of cells derived from cord blood can only take place if research material is available.  What began as the Indiana Cord Blood Bank became the Midwest Cord Blood Bank specifically to facilitate the use of cord blood to ultimately enhance everyone's health.

Public collections were launched at the start of 2007 within the Clarian Hospital Network, one of the largest in the state.  Units for transplant are collected from the following hospitals in the Clarian Network:

• Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis, IN
• Indiana University Hospital, Indianapolis, IN
• Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis, IN
• Clarian North, Carmel, IN
• Clarian West, Avon, IN
• Clarian Arnett Hospital, Lafayette, IN

Cord blood transplants are performed at Riley Hospital for Children and Indiana University Hospital.   The Midwest Cord Blood Bank subsequently received approval to collect donations from St. Vincent's Women’s Hospital (2009) and Hendricks Regional Hospital (2008).  Together, the Clarian and St. Vincent's Women’s Hospital account for almost 20,000 deliveries each year.

The Midwest Cord Blood Bank will accept donations from anywhere in the state of Indiana, but due to medical regulations they cannot list units for transplant use unless they come from the hospitals with IRB (Institutional Review Board) approvals.  Units from other hospitals are designated for research use only.  Research units are stripped of donor identity and distributed for use in research studies.  As of Sept 2009, the Midwest Cord Blood Bank has contributed over 1,500 cord bloods to research activities working to improve overall health and fight a variety of blood and immune related diseases.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  6 hospitals in New Jersey, 2 hospitals in Delaware, 1 hospital in Rhode Island.
INTERNET: www.communitybloodservices.org/cordblood.php
PHONE: 866-SAVCORD
STORAGE: Allendale, NJ, and Camden, NJ
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  In Aug of 2009, Community Blood Services joined the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.  Given the fiscal constraints of 2010, the bank is focusing primarily on collecting cord blood units which meet the HRSA criteria for reimbursement.

The following hospitals are participating in the New Jersey Cord Blood Bank (NJCBB):
communitybloodservices.org/cb_participatinghospitals.php?hosp=public
Those hospitals with on-site staff allow donors to sign up without pre-registration.

1. Christiana Hospital, Newark, DE
2. St. Francis Hospital, Wilmington, DE (on-site staff)
3. Cooper University Medical Center, Camden, NJ (on-site staff)
4. Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood, NJ
   
5. Holy Name Hospital, Teaneck, NJ (on-site staff)
6. Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Newark, NJ (on-site staff)
7. Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Camden, NJ (on-site staff)
8. St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, Paterson, NJ (on-site staff)
9. Women and Infants Hospital, Providence, RI
   

Donations from the state of Delaware are made possible through a partnership with the Brady Kohn Foundation.
Donations from the state of Rhode Island are made possible through a partnership with the Rhode Island Blood Center.

Community Blood Services is a non-profit regional blood bank founded in 1953 and serving the transfusion medicine needs of New Jersey and New York.  Their public cord blood banking program began in the mid-1990's and was named after the sponsor Elie Katz.  Now that the public banking program is called the "New Jersey Cord Blood Bank" (NJCBB), their family cord blood banking services are named the Elie Katz Umbilical Cord Blood Program at Community Blood Services.

In 2005, New Jersey became the first state to implement a statewide public cord blood bank.  Unlike other states which only paid lip service to the concept, NJ actually allocated money to process cord blood collections.  NJ Governor Codey created the program by Executive Order 18 Oct 2005.  Initially, the NJ program gave a two year grant of $350,000 to the stem cell processing laboratory at  Community Blood Services in Allendale, and also financially supported the Coriell Institute in Camden.  As of 26 May 2007, the program became known as the New Jersey Cord Blood Bank and was consolidated under Community Blood Services (press release).  Coriell transferred its cord blood collection and staff to the control of Community Blood Services. 

The Coriell Institute continues to conduct stem cell research, and in Jan 2010 they were awarded a five-year $27 million grant from NIH to expand their the human genetic cell repository.  The Coriell cell repository currently has more than 10,000 cell lines representing more than 1,000 disorders, and the grant would cover the addition of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). 

By 2009, NJCBB was collecting cord blood from 25 hospitals in New Jersey, 16 hospitals in New York,  2 hospitals in Delaware, and 1 hospital in Rhode Island.  However, in 2009 it became clear that NJ was running one of the largest state deficits in the nation and could not continue to support the public banking program.  In 2010, NJCBB eliminated all of their collection sites in NY and reduced to 6 collection sites in  NJ. 

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: 6 hospitals in New York, 1 in Virginia, 1 in Ohio
INTERNET: www.NationalCordBloodProgram.org 
PHONE: 866-767-NCBP (6227)
STORAGE: New York City, NY
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP, BMDW

DESCRIPTION:
This bank is a founding member of the Netcord international cord blood bank network.  The NYBC was the first cord blood processing laboratory to be accredited under the international FACT/Netcord standards.  NYBC belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

The NY Blood Center, which in 2004 changed the name of its cord blood program to the "National Cord Blood Program", is the world's oldest and most prestigious public cord blood bank.  For many years they could claim to have provided most of the cord blood used in transplants around the world.   At any time, their inventory and number of transplants can be accessed from the Netcord website button "NETCORD inventory".  As of March 2009, cord blood inventory of the NY Blood Center was 46,144, and they had released 2906 transplants.  In Sept 2009 the NY Blood Center joined forces with the NMDP and they now list their combined inventory.

The National Cord Blood Program collects from these U.S. hospitals, listed in the order of joining the program:

1. Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, NY
2. North Shore-LIJ Health Systems, Manhasset, NY
3. INOVA-Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA
4. New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, NY
5. University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH
6. Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY
7. Montifiore Medical Center (Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University Weiler Hospital), NYC, NY
8. Mt. Sinai Medical Center, NYC, NY
   

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  OHSU Hospital in Portland
INTERNET: www.ohsu.edu/health/cordblood
PHONE:  503-494-6122 or cord@ohsu.edu
STORAGE: Seattle, WA

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network. 

Oregon Health Science University in Portland, OR, has started a public donation program in association with the Puget Sound Blood Center in Seattle, WA.  Cord blood collected in Oregon is transported to
the Puget Sound Blood Center for processing and storage.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  Puget Sound area
INTERNET: www.psbc.org/cordblood or Email cordblood@psbc.org
PHONE: 206-292-1896
STORAGE: Seattle, WA
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  Puget Sound Blood Center belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

The Puget Sound Blood Center collects from these Washington state hospitals as of Feb 2009:

• Swedish Medical Center in Seattle
  
• University of Washington Medical Center
• Evergreen Healthcare
• Overlake Hospital Medical Center
• Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital
• Madigan Army Medical Center

The Puget Sound Blood Center is also the processing lab for cord blood donation programs in the states of Oregon and Hawaii.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  1 hospital in Rhode Island
INTERNET:
PHONE: 866-SAVCORD
STORAGE: Community Blood Services Allendale, NJ

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.

A one-year pilot program launched in May 2009 will collect cord blood donations from the Women & Infants Hospital of Providence, Rhode Island.  The cord blood collected at Women & Infants, where 9,000 babies are born each year, will be tested at the Rhode Island Blood Center.  If the collections pass the volume threshold for  public storage, they will be shipped to the New Jersey Cord Blood Bank, where they will be processed and frozen. 

The goals of the pilot program are to see how many women volunteer to donate, how many prove eligible, and how many of the collections are suitable for storage.  This will determine the feasibility of various approachs to continue the program.

The Providence Journal reports that funding to process this cord blood comes from $70,000 in legislative grants.

COLLECTS FOR: Research only
COLLECTS FROM:
INTERNET: www.saneron-ccel.com
PHONE: 813-977-7664
STORAGE: Tampa,  FL  

DESCRIPTION: Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology R&D company focused on neurological cell therapy. The private cord blood bank Cryo-Cell International owns 43.2% of Saneron CCEL. Saneron CCEL has a research partnership (announced Dec 2004) with the University of South Florida to develop treatments for spinal cord injury using donated cord blood units.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants for Siblings
COLLECTS FROM: anywhere in the USA
INTERNET:  see the federal Related Donor Cord Blood Program
PHONE: 510-450-7605
STORAGE: Oakland, CA

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES:
DESCRIPTION:
The Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program was a pioneering program founded at CHORI to provide FREE cord blood banking to families where a sibling of the expected baby might need a stem cell transplant.  As of Oct 2008, the Sibling Connection (as it is now called) is one component of the federal Related Donor Cord Blood Program, which serves both siblings and parents of the newborn.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: 30 hospitals within a 150 mile radius
INTERNET: www.slcbb.org
PHONE: 888-453-2673 or 314-268-2787
STORAGE: St. Louis, MO
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  St. Louis Cord Blood Bank belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

St. Louis Cord Blood Bank accepts cord blood donations from hospitals within a 150 mile radius.
Their map and list of participating hospitals encompasses about 30 hospitals.  This is one of the better public bank websites, and includes staff photos.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants & Research
COLLECTS FROM: California, Georgia, Michigan, Utah, and Taiwan
INTERNET: www.stemcyte.com
PHONE:  866-STEMCYTE
STORAGE: Covina, CA
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP, CRIR

DESCRIPTION:
This bank is a participating Member of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  StemCyte is accredited under the international FACT/Netcord standards as well as other standards.  StemCyte belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

StemCyte is a for-profit global company, founded in 1997 by Dr. Robert Chow, and headquartered in California.  StemCyte's main focus is to collect cord blood donations for transplants and to conduct research on cord blood transplantation.  StemCyte also operates the national cord blood bank of Taiwan, whose units are listed in the NMDP.

StemCyte is the most active bank in the NMDP public network: the California lab has a transplant history of 800 cord blood transplants as of Aug. 2008.  World-wide, StemCyte has provided 920 transplants (as of Feb. 2009)  to over 150 transplant centers within over 25 countries: see map.

The list of hospitals which collect donations for StemCyte is constantly changing, so parents should call to confirm.  Also note that, under FACT accreditation, collections can only be accepted at times when there are dedicated collection personnel on duty.  Here is the list as of Feb 2009:
 

• Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Torrance, CA
• Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Long Beach, CA
  
• White Memorial Hospital, Los Angeles, CA
• Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Oakland, CA
• St. Joseph's Hospital of Orange, Orange, CA
  
• St. John's Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit, MI
• DeKalb Medical Center, Decatur, GA

StemCyte is no longer collecting at these centers from 2009:

• University of Utah Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT
  
• St. Mark's Hospital, Salt Lake City, UT

The StemCyte processing method is different from most cord blood banks.  The proprietary "StemCyte Stem Cell Optimization Process" was developed during the 1990's by researchers participating in the federally-funded COrd Blood Transplantation study (COBLT).  The StemCyte processing method stores plasma-depleted whole blood, rather than separating mononuclear cells by red cell depletion.  StemCyte has published in the journal BBMT that they have a 99.9% recovery of Total Nucleated Cells (TNC).

StemCyte has a division which offers family banking, www.StemCyteFamily.com, using their California laboratory.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:
INTERNET: www.southtexasblood.org/texas_cord_blood_bank.asp
PHONE: 800-292-5534 (Option 8)
STORAGE: San Antonio, Texas
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
This bank is a participating Member of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  This bank is accredited by the AABB.  Texas Cord Blood Bank belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

Texas Cord Blood Bank is 1 of 3 banks in the NMDP pilot study of MAIL-IN DONATIONS.  The study has been profiled in TIME magazine and other media reports.  The 3 banks have funding to send collection kits to expectant mothers who enroll.  The mother's caregiver receives a 10 minute on-line training course in cord blood collection.  The program will run for one year or until 500 collections are saved.

Collection hospitals as of July 2010:

1. San Antonio: Methodist
2. San Antonio: North Central Baptist
   
3. San Antonio: Southeast Baptist
4. San Antonio: Northeast Baptist
   
5. San Antonio: University
6. San Antonio:  Metropolital Methodist
7. Harlingen: Valley Baptist Medical Center
8. Brownsville: Valley Baptist Medical Center
9. Dallas: Medical City
10. New Braunfels: CHRISTUS Santa Rosa
11. Edinburg: Doctors Hospital
12. Houston: Texas Children's Hospital/St Luke's Episcopal
13. Waco: Providence Hospital
14. Midland: Midland Memorial Hospital

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COLLECTS FOR: Research only
COLLECTS FROM: University of Arizona Medical Center
INTERNET: No Website
PHONE: 520-626-5125
STORAGE: Tucson, AZ

DESCRIPTION:
The University of Arizona has been collecting cord blood donations since the 1990's to supply research programs in the laboratory of Dr. David T. Harris.  Dr. Harris is a Prof. of Immunobiology at the U. of AZ,  and is also one of the founders and Chief Medical Officer of the family bank, Cord Blood Registry.  His research group seeks to develop regenerative medicine therapies that rely upon the stem cells in cord blood. 

The University of Arizona has launched BIO5: a collaborative biotech research institute bringing together scientists from 5 disciplines–agriculture, medicine, pharmacy, basic science and engineering. 

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: 3 hospitals in Fort Collins and Denver
INTERNET:  www.coloradocord.org
PHONE: (303) 724-1306
STORAGE: Aurora, CO
TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP

DESCRIPTION:
This bank is a participating Member of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.  University of Colorado Cord Blood Bank (UCCBB) belongs to the cohort of banks funded by HRSA to collect racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

The University of Colorado Cord Blood Bank (UCCBB) is operated by ClinImmune Labs, an academic-based biotechnology company located in the Bioscience Park Center of the Fitzsimons Campus in Aurora, Colorado.  In addition to cord blood banking, the parent company ClinImmune Labs provides high resolution HLA-DNA typing, hematopoietic stem cell and pancreatic islet cell processing, flow cytometry and regulatory oversight to the cord blood bank.  Their personnel are profiled on their website.

UCCBB public bank claims (web viewing Feb 2009) to have consented 10,700 women and banked 6,700 cord blood units, of which 425 have been transplanted at 100 different transplant centers in the United States and abroad.  Colorado taxpayers have an option on their 2008 state tax return to donate to the ADULT STEM CELLS CURE FUND, which provides resources to encourage and enable new mothers across Colorado to donate their babies' umbilical cord blood to a public cord blood bank. These funds will help UCCBB to collect statewide.

As of Feb 2009, these hospitals participate:

• Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins
• Denver Health Medical Center in Denver
• Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver

The lab of UCCBB also provides family banking services via the company AlphaCord, where they are listed as the Colorado stem cell bank.

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COLLECTS FOR: Research only
COLLECTS FROM: University of Iowa birthing center
INTERNET: www.medicine.uiowa.edu/Programs/CordBlood/
PHONE: 319-384-8667 or Email cord-blood@uiowa.edu
STORAGE: Iowa City, IA

DESCRIPTION: In 2004 the University of Iowa started a program to collect cord blood donations specifically for disease research, not transplants.  The director of the cord blood bank is Donna Santillan, PhD, Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

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