News

Feb 2016   Carl Fox was a North Carolina Superior Court Judge in spring 2015 when he learned that he needed a stem cell transplant from a donor. But none of the 13.5 million people on the US national registry of adult donors was a match. Thus began the "Save The Fox" campaign of running donor drives. It is a classic story of a community coming together, and also of a devoted nurse who would not take no for an answer. Today Judge Fox is recovering from a double cord blood transplant, but Save The Fox continues to register more donors, especially African Americans who have the hardest time finding a match.

Feb 2016   Karen is a 6-year old boy who suffered from bone marrow failure and needed a stem cell transplant to survive. Great amounts of time and effort were spared to find a matching bone marrow donor for Karen, but all the efforts were in vain and not even a single match could be found. Since his birth, Karen’s own umbilical cord blood had been banked at Royan Stem Cell Technology Company. Karen became the 12th child in the world to receive an autologous transplant of his own cord blood stem cells for Aplastic Anemia, the first such case in Iran and all of the Middle East nations. This transplantation surgery was successfully performed in a fruitful collaboration of Royan Stem Cell Technology Company and Ali Asghar Hospital, under the supervision of Dr. Bahoosh.

Jan 2016   Isabella was born with Childhood Apraxia Syndrome, and still could not speak by the age of three years old. Her parents had stored Isabella's cord blood privately at birth with the family bank Americord. Isabella was treated at Duke Medical Center, where Dr. Kurtzberg re-infused the stem cells from Isabella's cord blood. Within 3 weeks, Isabella's speech improved noticeably and she said her brother's name for the first time.

Jan 2016   Macopharma & Canadian Blood Services have created a movie to illustrate best practices while collecting cord blood ex-utero.

Jan 2016   Telomeres are the tips of the chromosome that prevent degradation and damage.  Telomeres are associated with biological aging because with each cell division, they divide and get shorter, so that elderly adults have the shortest telomeres. 

Dec 2015   Our tagline at STEMCELL Technologies is Scientists Helping ScientistsTM. This was born organically when someone used it in a meeting, and it stuck because it really describes what we do. Everyone at STEMCELL is passionate about the pursuit of scientific knowledge and our mission to create innovative tools and resources for scientists.

Nov 2015   Parent's Guide to Cord Foundation has issued the world's first Cord Blood Industry Report that is based on direct interviews of family cord blood banks around the world. All participating companies were promised confidentiality, hence their proprietary data is only presented in aggregates. The landing page of the report displays an Abstract of the contents, and the Access page explains the subscription procedure. In this article we present a preview of some interesting results.

Nov 2015   In July 2015, Cord Blood Registry® (CBR®) and the National Association of Hispanic Nurses® (NAHN®) announced that the two organizations have entered into a collaboration focused on educating health care providers and the public about the importance of preserving cord blood stem cells. Through active counseling to promote informed decision making by Latina expectant mothers, CBR and NAHN will strive to reach an increasing number of Hispanic families that may benefit from the storage or donation of cord blood stem cells. The partnership will offer cord blood stem cell education and outreach to Hispanic nurses in the form of continuing medical education, materials support, and online resources for those healthcare professionals working with Latino expectant parents.

Nov 2015   Hispanics in the State of New Jersey now comprise the largest minority, making up nearly 18% of the State's population or roughly 1.5 million residents (US Census Bureau, 2010). Despite the nursing profession numbering 3 million registered nurses in the United States, only 3.6% of these are Hispanic, or of Latino origin (AACN Diversity in Nursing, 2015). At the local and state level the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) Garden State Chapter was formed to help bridge the equity and health disparities that exist within Hispanic communities in New Jersey (NJ).

Oct 2015   Somatic cells may be scientifically defined as "A cell within the developing or developed organism with the exception of egg and sperm cells".1 In the context of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the term is most often used to refer to non-hematopoietic cells that might be used for other cellular therapies. Pancreatic islet cells for transplantation in diabetic patients are one example of somatic cells. Mesenchymal stromal cells (also called mesenchymal stem cells or MSC) are another somatic cell type. MSCs have received increased attention in recent years.