Public Cord Blood Banks in the USA

If you wish to donate your child's cord blood, the mother must register with a collection program before the third trimester and the mother must pass a health history screening. 

This web page lists all banks in the US which accept donations.  Most donation programs are affiliated with specific birthing centers: you can only donate your child's cord blood if the baby is delivered in a hospital associated with a collection program.  There are less than 200 collection centers in the US, mostly at large hospitals which deliver thousands of babies per year.  There are also some banks which accept a limited number of mail-in donations (see below).

Over half 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 on a registry which can be searched by patients seeking a donor.

Many (but not all!) of the cord blood banks in the US participate in the cord blood registry maintained by the National Marrow Donor Program, NMDP (their mission has expanded beyond their name).  Below are two useful links for the NMDP cord blood program:

• NMDP public cord blood banks
• Hospitals which collect for NMDP public cord blood banks

Banks which accept mail-in donations:

There are only two banks in the USA which currently (January 2009) collect mail-in donations:

• Cryobanks International -- collects year-round, presumably sells some portion of collections.
  
• LifebankUSA -- collections fluctuate, depending on demand from the clinical research trials they supply.

Why public banking is limited:

It costs a public bank about one thousand dollars to process cord blood for storage.  In order to accept donations for free, the bank must have income to support the laboratory. That income may come from federal fuding, 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.

Who may donate:

Not everyone is eligible to donate cord blood, and not all cord blood collections will be suitable for public storage. To learn more about the requirements that the mother and the blood collection must pass, go to the page on Informed Consent.

Also, ask your OB/Gyn 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.

COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:
INTERNET: www.sandiegobloodbank.org
PHONE: (619) 296-6393 extension 8327
STORAGE: San Diego, CA

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
The cord blood inventory at this bank participates in the cord blood registry of the NMDP,  but they are not actively collecting cord blood at this time.


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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:
INTERNET: www.bonfils.org
PHONE:
STORAGE: Denver, CO

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: BMDW, NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
The cord blood inventory at this bank participates in the cord blood registry of the NMDP, but they are not actively collecting cord blood at this time.


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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: Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: NMDP
DESCRIPTION:
This bank participates in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network.   The cord blood processing lab is accredited under the international FACT/Netcord standards.

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) because the transplant doctors understand first-hand how critically important it is to recruit donors.  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, the downside being that it is only available when collecting staff 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 Duke University 'Carolinas' Cord Blood Bank is accredited under the international FACT/Netcord standards.

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, Cary, NC    
5. Rex Hospital, Raleigh, NC   
6. Women’s Hospital of Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
7. 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
PHONE: (714) 516-4335
STORAGE: Orange, CA

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

As of Feb 2009, the Children's Hospital of Orange County Cord Blood Bank is accepting donations from St. Joseph Hospital.  For more information, phone or request info by Email.

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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 of 2009, CORD:USE won a grant from HRSA to reimburse the collection of 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.

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

• Florida: Orlando - Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies; South MIami - South Miami Hospital
  
• Michigan: Dearborn - Oakwood Hospital
• North Carolina: Greensboro - Women's Hospital of Greensboro, Raleigh - Rex Hospital
  

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.

CORD:USE hopes to expand their collection network, focusing on medical centers with the opportunity to obtain racially and ethnically diverse cord blood donors, to ensure that  the greatest number of individuals seeking a matched transplant can be helped.

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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 one of only two banks that accepts donations mailed in from anywhere.  They started as a private cord blood bank, but their current business is primarily oriented towards accepting donations.  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: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 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.

The laboratory which processes and stores cord blood for Gift of Life is located at the University of Massachusetts; the laboratory director is Philip Lowry, M.D.   The Gift of Life lab has AABB accreditation and is seeking FACT accreditation.

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.

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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: 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
DESCRIPTION: This program is not collecting cord blood at this time.

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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: Community Blood Services, Allendale, NJ

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. The cord blood is processed and stored at Community Blood Services (part of the NMDP bank network) in Paramus, NJ. The cost of the program is borne by both the Elie Katz Umbilical Cord Blood Program and Kehila Cord. For more information, contact Kehila Cord at 718-384-2332 (office: 429 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 1121).

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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  is one of only two banks that accepts donations mailed in from anywhere.   LifebankUSA is a subsidiary of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics , a biotech pharmaceuticals company (Nasdaq: CELG).   They primarily do business as a private cord blood bank.   The LifebankUSA public donation program can be found under the "Medical Professionals" section of their website, but the best way to get information is to phone.

LIfebankUA is the first cord blood bank to routinely bank the stem cells from the placenta, in addition to the umbilical cord blood.  This is a separate process.  They recommend collecting blood from the umbilical cord in utero, then the placenta is delivered and cells are extracted from the placenta.

LifebankUSA encourages parents to donate the placenta, regardless of how they are banking the umbilical cord blood.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  Selected hospitals in north Florida and south Alabama
INTERNET: www.lifesouth.org  --> click on the "Donate" button, then "Types of Donations", etc.
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 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 2009, collections are accepted from:

• North Florida Regional Medical Center, Gainesville FL
  
• Shands at AGH, Gainesville FL
• Shands at UF, Gainesville FL
• Shands at LakeShore,Lake City FL
  
• Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama
• Baptist East Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:  Selected hospitals in Houston, Texas
INTERNET:  www2.mdanderson.org/app/cbb/
PHONE: 1-800-392-1611, Option #1
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 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.   As of Sept 2005, the bank had partnerships with the Women’s Hospital of Texas and with Ben Taub General Hospital, both of which are near M. D. Anderson.

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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:  25 hospitals in New Jersey, 16 hospitals in New York,  2 hospitals in Delaware.
INTERNET: www.communitybloodservices.org/cordblood.php
PHONE: 866-SAVCORD
STORAGE: Allendale, 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 won a grant from HRSA to reimburse the collection of racially diverse donations for the national cord blood inventory.

The New Jersey Cord Blood Bank (NJCBB) collects cord blood from participating hospitals throughout New Jersey, New York, and Delaware.  A current list is available at:
communitybloodservices.org/cb_participatinghospitals.php?hosp=public

These hospitals have on-site collection staff, which enables donors to sign up without pre-registration:  

• Holy Name Hospital, Teaneck, NJ
• St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, Paterson, NJ
• The Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, NJ

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

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.

Since 2005, New Jersey is the first state to implement a statewide public cord blood bank.  Unlike other states which have 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.  Coriell continues to conduct stem cell research.

Since 1 Aug 2007, Community Blood Services processes all cord blood collections with the automated Sepax system from the Swiss company Biosafe.  The processing components are the Sepax automated cell separation system and the Coolmix  automated mixing and cooling device.  Not only does the Sepax system use a functionally closed, single-use kit that is sterile, but also the system has a fail-safe protocol which stops processing and returns all blood to the original collection bag if the cell recovery is low.    Because the processing kit comes with anti-coagulant already included, it carries BLA licensure from the FDA.  In their validation of the Sepax system, Community Blood Services achieved 86% recovery of CD34+ marked stem cells.

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM: 3 hospitals in New York, 1 each in Virginia & Ohio
INTERNET: www.NationalCordBloodProgram.org 
PHONE: 866-767-NCBP (6227)
STORAGE: New York City, NY

TRANSPLANT REGISTRIES: 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.

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.

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
   

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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. 

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:
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 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 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.  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
•     Monday to Friday -- 7:00am to 3:30pm
• Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Long Beach, CA
  
•     Monday to Thursday -- 7:00am to 3:30pm
• White Memorial Hospital, Los Angeles, CA
•     Friday – 7:00am to 3:30pm
• Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Oakland, CA
•     Monday to Friday – 7:00am to 3:30pm
• DeKalb Medical Center, Decatur, GA
  
•     Monday to Friday – 7:00am to 3:30pm
• St. John's Hospital, Detroit, MI
  
•     24/7 – daily collection
• University of Utah Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT
  
•     Monday to Friday – 7:00am to 3:30pm
• St. Mark's Hospital, Salt Lake City, UT
•     Monday to Friday – 7:00am to 3:30pm

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 the California laboratory.

StemCyte is participating in the following clinical trials:

• Thalassemia  – StemCyte has been collaborating on a multi-center study of cord blood transplantation as a treatment for Thalassemia Major in Taiwan.  Dr. Robert Chow, founder and vice chairman of StemCyte, presented results from this study on behalf of Dr. Jaing at the Dec. 2006 ASH meeting, and the abstract is published in the journal Blood.

• Spinal Cord Injury - StemCyte is conducting a clinical trial in Taiwan which hopes to accrue 60 patients to study the use of cord blood to repair Spinal Cord Injury.  This trial is in collaboration with Dr. Wise Young of the Rutgers University W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience.
  

• Reduction of Incidences of Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease (cGvHD) - Plasma-depleted cord blood can be effectively transplanted into patients without first undergoing post-thaw washing, and was found to reduce the incidence of extensive cGvHD, according to research presented by Robert Chow, M.D.

• Treatment of Non-Malignant Disorders with Plasma Depleted Cord Blood -In what was named one of the six Pediatric Best Abstracts, 120 children received treatment for non-malignant disorders through transplants of StemCyte cord blood products that maximize cell dose by using plasma-depletion and eliminating post-thaw wash. The study, presented by Dr. Rosenthal, M.D., Director of Pediatric Transplantation at the City of Hope National Medical Center, reported overall survival of 88±4% and disease-free survival 84±5%.

• Plasma-Depleted Cord Blood Effective in Treating Adult Malignancies - According to an abstract submitted by Auayporn Nademanee, M.D., of City of Hope National Medical Center, single and double cord blood transplants with StemCyte products can be safely and effectively performed on adult patients with various forms of leukemia.  Adults who received double cord blood transplants with plasma depleted products did not demonstrate higher rate of acute or chronic GvHD than those who received single cord blood transplants.

• Comparison of StemCyte’s Plasma Depleted versus Standard Red Cell Reduced Cord Blood - To compare the two processig methods, researchers matched 92 pairs of patients on the basis of disease type, disease status, age, weight, and tissue type matching.  Dr. Graham showed that patients transplanted with plasma-depleted cord blood received higher cell dose, had lower transplant-related mortality, superior engraftment and overall survival.

• Stem Cell Transplantation for Treatment and Immune Reconstitution of HIV patients - This is a collaboration in progress between StemCyte, UCLA Medical Center, and City of Hope.  The goal is to identify cord blood units which possess known a gene mutation that protects against HIV, and conduct a clinical trial to see if transplants with those cord blood units can benefit HIV patients.  StemCyte has a patent pending on this technology.
  

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COLLECTS FOR: Transplants
COLLECTS FROM:
INTERNET: www.bloodntissue.org/texascordbloodbank.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.

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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 is very active in the pursuit of regenerative medicine therapies which may be developed from the stem cells in cord blood. 

The State of Arizona is considering a $30million appropriation (reported in the Phoenix Business Journal 5 March 2007) to fund regenerative medicine research with adult stem cells.  The University of Arizona has launched BIO5: a collaborative bioresearch institute bringing together scientists from 5 disciplines–agriculture, medicine, pharmacy, basic science and engineering.  In April 2007 BIO5 hosted a one-day conference on The Promise of Stem Cells which featured keynote speaker Prof. Colin McGuckin from the U. of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK, who has argued that cord blood stem cells are pluripotent.

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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:
DESCRIPTION:
This bank is a participating Member of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) cord blood bank network. 

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

UCCBB also offers family banking services through the company  AlphaCord.

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COLLECTS FOR: Research only
COLLECTS FROM: University of Iowa birthing center
INTERNET: www.medicine.uiowa.edu/Programs/CordBlood/
PHONE: 319-356-7875 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 hematopoietic stem cell bank is Frederick Goldman, MD, associate professor of pediatrics.

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