LifeSouth Cord Blood Bank

About

LifeSouth Cord Blood Bank is a community-based public cord blood bank that collects and stores umbilical cord blood for the purpose of clinical treatment and research in the field of stem cell transplantation. We participate in the network of public cord blood banks affiliated with the National Marrow Donor Program’s (NMDP) Be The Match® registry and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). LifeSouth CBB is also one of the high quality cord blood banks selected by HRSA of HHS to help build the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI). LifeSouth CBB is a program of LifeSouth Community Blood Centers that performs community and donor education, cord blood collection and processing, distribution of cord blood units and evaluation of transplant outcomes. We also work to increase the diversity of donors from which cord blood is collected.

Our parent organization, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, was founded in 1974. LifeSouth is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community blood supplier for hospitals in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. LifeSouth’s cord blood bank was established in 1998 and has been accredited by FACT for cord blood banking since 2007.

LifeSouth received FDA licensure for its cord blood product CORDCYTE in June 2013.  LifeSouth Cord Blood Bank has shipped cord blood units for transplant throughout the United States and to nineteen foreign countries.

The medical director of LifeSouth Cord Blood Bank is John R. Wingard, MD, Professor Emeritus and Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at UF Health. LifeSouth Cord Blood Bank uses the state of the art, fully automated Sepax processing system (Cytvia) and the BioArchive cryopreservation system (Thermogenesis).  The Sepax processing kit is a sterile, single-use, functionally closed system, so that the cord blood never comes into contact with the external environment.

As of September 2023, collections are accepted from:

1. HCA North Florida Regional Medical Center, Gainesville FL
2. UF Health Shands, Gainesville FL
3. UF Health Jacksonville, Jacksonville FL
4. UF Health North, Jacksonville FL
5. Baptist Medical Center South, Jacksonville FL
6. South Georgia Medical Center, Valdosta GA
7. St. Francis - Emory Healthcare, Columbus, GA
8. Piedmont Henry Hospital, Stockbridge, GA
9. Baptist Medical Center East, Montgomery, AL
10. Baptist Medical Center South, Montgomery, AL
11. Jackson Hospital, Montgomery, AL
12. Brookwood Medical Center, Birmingham, AL
13. UAB Hospital, Birmingham, AL
14. Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center, Anniston, AL
15. Thomas Hospital, Fairhope, AL
16. Mobile Infirmary, Mobile, AL
17. USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital, Mobile, AL
18. East Alabama Medical Center, Opelika, AL