Advisory Panel

Asawari Bapat, MD

Dr. Bapat is originally from India, where she earned her medical degree with specialization in clinical pathology. For over 15 years she has lived in Dubai, while consulting for medical organizations around the world. Dr. Bapat is an expert in the operational management and regulatory compliance of stem cell facilities. Her expertise ranges across the complete spectrum from setting up laboratory SOP, to achieving accreditation, to submitting documentation for clinical trials of cellular therapy products. She has executed projects on behalf of diagnostic laboratories, hospitals, biobanks, apheresis and transfusion facilities, and biotherapy providers. Dr. Bapat has worked with numerous international Quality Management Systems, including  AABB, CAP, FACT, JCI, USFDA, and the Ministry of Health for various nationalities. Dr. Bapat held a chair on the committee that developed the cord blood banking regulations adopted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). She has worked for multiple cord blood banks as well as companies producing therapy products based on perinatal cells and tissues. Dr. Bapat has developed training materials for professionals as a subject matter expert on the topics of biotherapies and blood components. Dr. Bapat is the 2022 recipient of the AABB President's Award. Dr. Bapat has working proficiency in eight languages.

Alexey Bersenev, MD, PhD

Dr. Alexey Bersenev was born and raised in Russia, where he received an M.D. in general surgery and a Ph.D. in transplantation.  He has continued his professional training in the US, first at Thomas Jefferson University, and then as a post-doctoral fellow at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).  His research has explored the genetic mechanisms of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cell self-renewal and errors, in order to better understand the development of leukemia. He has worked at the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility of the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently Director of the Cell Therapy Laboratory at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale University. Dr. Bersenev is very well known in the cell therapy community for his blogs and databases, most recently published through CellTrials.org. Dr. Bersenev is constantly studying new research reports from around the world, and considering how they may impact the development of cellular therapy products, including  the applications of cord blood stem cells.

Heather Brown, MS CGC

Heather Brown has over twenty five years of clinical and business experience in the healthcare and biotech industries. She holds a M.S. in Health and Medical Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a board certified genetic counselor with extensive experience in the delivery of genetic screening programs. Ms. Brown began her career in the Fetal Diagnostic Center at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu HI, where she coordinated the maternal serum screening program, provided patient care for prenatal genetic indications throughout the state, and ran the perinatal bereavement program. After several positions in direct patient care, she transitioned to clinical roles at genetics-related healthcare companies and joined Cord Blood Registry (CBR). For nearly 25 years, she lead all scientific and medical affairs functions at CBR, including physician education programs, investigator initiated study sponsorship, and medical need based programs. She is also the former president of the Cord Blood Association.

Lizette Dunay

Lizette is a co-founder of Cure CP.  She has 15 years of experience in the medical and biologics field in a sales and business development capacity. She has spent six years as a regional manager for a hybrid (both public and private storage) cord blood bank. Lizette helped found Cure CP in 2010 when she encountered many closed doors in her quest to have her son's cerebral palsy (CP) treated with his own bone marrow stem cells. Her belief in the science of regenerative medicine, coupled with a desire to make life easier for her son and others with cerebral palsy, is what drove her to start Cure CP. Cure CP is the only parent-led non-profit in the USA that is 100% dedicated to funding CP research. Currently Cure CP has helped fund three clinical trials in the US for children with cerebral palsy. Lizette is a graduate of the University of Florida where she received her B.A. in Economics and a minor in Spanish. Lizette's skill sets combine knowledge of both cord blood donation and family storage, the personal perspective as a mother of a child with disabilities, efforts in patient advocacy, and familiarity with clinical trials. She is uniquely qualified to help others looking to make cord blood healthcare decisions for their family. Lizette is also fluent in Spanish. She lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband and two children.

Vasiliki E. Kalodimou, PhD

Vasiliki Kalodimou graduated from Imperial University of Medicine in UK with a Masters in human molecular genetics. She also holds a PhD in stem cells expansion-flow cytometry and regenerative medicine from Kapodistrian University of Medicine in Greece. Dr. Kalodimou decided to become involved in stem cell research when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer during her first year in college - her decision was that she wanted to help other people find stem cell therapies. She is an expert in flow cytometry and stem cells, and her research focuses on the application of adipose mesenchymal stromal cells to regenerative medicine, where Dr. Kalodimou has two patents. Her first book is Basic Principles in Flow Cytometry, and the English version was placed as medical student reference material in the USA and India. Dr. Kalodimou is an AABB Lead/Sole assessor and a board member at the AABB Cellular Therapy Accreditation Program Unit for worldwide standards development. She was a mentor for the AABB Cellular Therapy, Professional Engagement Program (PEP), where in 2017 she received the “Shining Star” award. Dr. Kalodimou is currently the director of research in regenerative medicine at IASO Maternity Hospital near Athens, which is the largest maternity hospital in Greece. Kalodimou’s passion is working on research projects for better patient health.

Joanne Kurtzberg, MD

Dr. Kurtzberg is a distinguished professor of pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, where she also leads the Marcus Center for Cellular Cures. Dr. Kurtzberg was the first physician in the United States to perform cord blood transplants, starting in 1993. Under her leadership, Duke University has performed over a thousand cord blood transplants and has pioneered new clinical applications for cord blood stem cells. Her team showed that cord blood transplants can correct metabolic disorders, such as storage diseases, in young children. Dr. Kurtzberg also pioneered the use of cord blood stem cells to treat acquired neurological disorders in young children, such as Cerebral Palsy and Autism Spectrum Disorder. In addition to her clinical responsibilities, Dr. Kurtzberg has served the cord blood community in a number of leadership and committee positions.  Dr. Kurtzberg is the Director of the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank, a public bank at Duke University which participates in the Be The Match® network, and is also the Medical Director of Cryo-Cell cord blood bank. She has been a member of the HRSA Advisory Council on Blood Stem Cell Transplantation and is the founding President of the Cord Blood Association.  On top of all these responsibilities, Dr. Kurtzberg is never too busy to respond to inquiries from parents or patients.

Irene Martini, PhD

Dr. Martini is the Scientific Director at Sorgente, the Italian branch of FamiCord group, from 2017. Dr. Martini is also a professor at Sapienza University. Dr. Martini has more than 30 years experience as a researcher, and has written scientific publications as well as patent documents. Dr. Martini has also taken part in several European Union and World Health Organisation (WHO) international research projects. She has collaborated with the Gaslini Institute on a project concerning perinatal solid cancer in children. She was the first scientist in Italy to promote cord blood banking, at the beginning of 2000, and she was the co-founder of the first cord blood bank in Italy, SmartBank, in 2005. Dr. Martini has appeared frequently on national television and radio to explain the benefits of cord blood storage. She also runs monthly courses for prospective parents on the potential benefits of storage, including the latest research developments, as well as courses for gynaecologists and mid-wives. She has three children herself, and was able to save cord blood for the youngest.

Roger Mrowiec, PhD

Dr. Mrowiec has been in charge of cord blood collection, processing, and storage for both public and private banking programs at Community Blood Services in New Jersey, a subsidiary of Vitalant. By the time of his retirement at the end of 2025, he had been the driving force behind their cord blood laboratory for nearly 30 years. In addition to maintaining quality standards, Dr. Mrowiec participated in research partnerships with other organizations to make stem cells from cord blood and other perinatal tissues more widely available to patients in need of therapy. Dr. Mrowiec is a member of: Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB), International Society for Hematotherapy and Graft Engineering (ISHAGE), New Jersey Society of Blood Bank Professionals, Perinatal Stem Cell Society, Cord Blood Association, and is former president of the Polish Society of Hematology and Transfusiology, Warsaw Division. Dr. Mrowiec is currently on the advisory board of PBKM. Dr. Mrowiec received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Medical University of Bialystok, Poland. His main scientific interest is the cryopreservation and storage of blood cells.

Jordan Perlow, MD

Jordan Perlow is an OB/Gyn who is Board Certified in both Obstetrics and Gynecology and the sub-specialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Dr. Perlow is a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM). He was a partner at Phoenix Perinatal Associates, a private practice where he cared for high-risk pregnancy patients, from 1992-2022. Dr. Perlow is also a past Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Banner University Medical Center, where he served for more than three decades. Dr. Perlow has published numerous papers in peer reviewed medical journals, though within the cord blood community he may be best known for his survey Patient's Knowledge of Umbilical Cord Blood Banking.  Dr. Perlow frequently gives interviews and volunteers on behalf of organizations that support women's health, pregnancy, cord blood banking, and newborn health. He has played a key role in the March of Dimes, helping to establish and run their campaigns to reduce preterm births and prevent birth defects.

Kim Petrella, MSN, RNC-OB

Kim Petrella, MSN, RNC-OB, is a Labor & Delivery Nurse with 35+ years of experience, and is a member of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN). Mrs. Petrella specializes in educating medical professionals about the importance of saving cord blood. She has had numerous speaking engagements about the power and future of cord blood stem cells. She has spoken at medical conferences, hospitals, universities, and high schools. Most of all, she focuses her energies on empowering parents to save their baby's cord blood instead of throwing it away. Her efforts to empower parents and professionals have been recognized by numerous awards.

Ian Rogers, PhD

Dr. Rogers is a Professor at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mt. Sinai Hospital, in Toronto, Canada.  The research in his laboratory is focused on combining stem cells with decellularized organs to grow cells in three-dimensional tissue culture systems. They have demonstrated that CD34+ cells from umbilical cord blood or tissue blood have the ability in culture to secrete factors which support cell survival, blood vessel growth, and cell migration important for tissue repair. Their decellularized organ culture system has been adapted to study regeneration of multiple organs: kidneys, pancreas, and ovaries. Dr. Rogers was one of the co-founders of Insception Biosciences, which grew to become the largest family cord blood bank in Canada.

Karen Taylor, MD

Dr. Karen Taylor is a board-certified OB/Gyn who is the owner of Newport Gynecology in Newport Beach, California. She graduated from Tuft’s University School of Medicine and completed her specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Taylor first developed a passion for cord blood banking during her residency training. Later she served as the Medical Director for the public/private cord blood bank StemCyte between 2011 and 2015. She used this platform to increase the inventory of large, high quality, and ethnically diverse cord blood units for the national NMDP inventory. Dr. Taylor is committed to ensuring that expectant mothers and their families receive custom-tailored education that will help them to lead better lives.

Mark Weiss, PhD

Dr. Weiss is co-discoverer, together with Deryl Troyer, Duane Davis, and Kathy Mitchell, of the mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) within the umbilical cord tissue Wharton's jelly. This work was performed at Kansas State University (KSU), where he joined the faculty in 1991. KSU has a patent on methods to harvest, grow, and store umbilical cord matrix stem cells and the use of matrix cells for therapy, tissue engineering, and biotechnology. Dr. Weiss is one of the founders of the The Midwest Institute for Comparative Stem Cell Biology, and he is a member of the Terry C. Johnson Center for Basic Cancer Research at KSU. His laboratory is exploring the immune properties of Wharton' s jelly MSC and their therapeutic potential in rodent models of disease.