Cord Blood Community Events 2025

This year’s schedule of cord blood-related events is more active than usual, with new programs launching and standard programs changing format.

Eurocord & CBA at EBMT 2025

Already, on 1 April 2025 there was a new cord blood session at the 51^st meeting of the EBMT (European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation) in Florence, Italy. The two organizations, Eurocord and the Cord Blood Association, held a joint session on cord blood research. The program started with a talk from Eliane Gluckman, MD, recapping the history of cord blood transplants. The status of outcomes from pediatric cord blood transplants was presented by Robert Wynn, MD, from the UK’s University of Manchester Children’s Hospital. Finally, novel applications of cord blood and cord tissue to manufacture advanced cellular therapy medical products (ATMP) were presented by Beth Shaz, MD, on behalf of Duke University and by Elizabeth J. Shpall, MD, on behalf of MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Latest Results of Cord Blood Transplants

Robert F. Wynn MD presented compelling evidence that cord blood is the superior graft source for pediatric stem cell transplants^1,2. Cord blood offers enhanced Graft versus Leukemia (GvL) effect, without the risk of chronic Graft versus Host Disease (cGVHD). The enhanced GvL effect leads to reduced relapse rates, even in patients with Minimal Residual Disease (MRD). Thanks to less relapse and lower cGVHD, the Overall Survival (OS) of pediatric transplant patients is better with cord blood than any other graft sources.

Dr. Wynn argues that the advantages of cord blood as a T-cell replete graft come from the fact that the T-cells in cord blood have markedly different biologic behavior from the T-cells in adult graft sources². There are many future applications of this research that can be explored in clinical trials, such as using expanded cord blood units to treat adults, or giving T-cells as a non-engrafting cell therapy. But perhaps the first priority should be an education campaign to convince more pediatric oncologists to consider cord blood as their first graft choice for transplant.

UC-MSC therapy for GVHD

In December 2024, the US FDA issued its first approval of a cell therapy product that employs Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSC)³. This approval went to the company Mesoblast for a MSC product manufactured from bone marrow (BM-MSC) for the treatment of steroid-refractory GVHD.

Clinical trials of MSC for GVHD have a very long history, and have employed MSC from multiple sources^4-6. However, now that one MSC product has finally been approved for this indication in the US, competing cell therapy manufacturers are eager to run late-stage trials and seek approvals for alternative MSC products. Considering that MSC from umbilical cord tissue (UC-MSC) have higher proliferation ability and less donor variability than bone marrow or adipose MSC sources, they have great promise as an off-the-shelf cell therapy for GVHD^7,8. During the special session at EBMT, Dr. Elizabeth Shpall described a phase 3 trial at MD Anderson. We can expect to see reports coming out of the current clinical trials of UC-MSC for GVHD in the months ahead.

The 1^st Eliane Gluckman Award

Also new at this year’s EBMT meeting, the Cord Blood Association has established an award in honor of Eliane Gluckman, the legendary physician who performed the world’s first cord blood transplant on 6 October 1988^9,10.

Dr. Eliane Gluckman personally bestowed the first Eliane Gluckman award to her mentee and long-time colleague at Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris, Vanderson Geraldo Rocha MD PhD. In her remarks, Dr. Gluckman reminisced about how Dr. Rocha arrived in Paris as a young doctor who had just completed his hematology specialty at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in his native Brazil. Dr. Rocha went on to also earn a PhD in Therapeutic Biotechnology from the Univesité de Paris. Over the course of his illustrious career, Dr. Rocha has been an author on over 400 medical publications, many in high-impact journals^11,12. He has served as a scientific director of the Eurocord program for 25 years¹³. Dr. Rocha has also served with prominent organizations such as European Blood and Marrow Transplant group (EBMT), Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), and the University of Oxford. Since 2016, he has been a full professor of hematology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, as well as president of the Pró-Sangue Foundation, one of the five largest blood banks in Latin America^14,15.

The ceremony for this first Eliane Gluckman award was held at the Palazzo Borghese di Firenze, a lavishly baroque palace in Florence that was originally built for Italian nobles in the 15^th century and is now available as an event venue^16,17.

2025 Cord Blood Connect

Breaking news: The Cord Blood Association has formed an alliance with AABB (Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies). The 2025 annual meeting of the CBA, dubbed Cord Blood Connect, will be part of the AABB annual meeting, taking place in San Diego USA from 25-28 of October¹⁸. More announcements will follow from both the CBA and AABB.

References

1. Horgan C, Mullanfiroze K, Rauthan A, Patrick K, Butt NA, Mirci-Danicar O, ... Wynn RF. T-cell replete cord transplants give superior outcomes in high-risk and relapsed/refractory pediatric myeloid malignancy. Blood Advances 2023; 7(10):2155-2165.
2. Borrill R, Poulton K, Wynn R. Immunology of cord blood T-cells favors augmented disease response during clinical pediatric stem cell transplantation for acute leukemia. Frontiers Pediatrics. 2023; 11:1232281.
3. US Food & Drug Administration (FDA). FDA Approves First Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Therapy to Treat Steroid-refractory Acute Graft-versus-host Disease. News Release. Published 2024-12-18
4. Kebriaei P, Robinson S. Treatment of graft-versus-host-disease with mesenchymal stromal cells. Cytotherapy. 2011; 13(3):262-268.
5. Couto PS, Shatirishvili G, Bersenev A, Verter F. First Decade of Clinical Trials and Published Studies with Mesenchymal Stromal Cells from Umbilical Cord Tissue. Regenerative Medicine. 2019; 14(4):309–319.
6. Hashmi S, Ahmed M, Murad MH, Litzow, MR, Adams RH, Ball LM, Prasad VK, Kebriaei P, Ringden O. Survival after mesenchymal stromal cell therapy in steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease: systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2016; 3(1):e45-e52.
7. Galipeau J. The mesenchymal stromal cells dilemma – does a negative phase III trial of random donor mesenchymal stromal cells in steroid-resistant graft-versus-host disease represent a death knell or a bump in the road? Cytotherapy. 2013; 15(1):2–8.
8. Couto PS, Stibbs DJ, Rotondi MC, Khalife R, Wolf D, Takeuchi Y, Rafiq QA. Biological differences between adult and perinatal human mesenchymal stromal cells and their impact on the manufacturing processes. Cytotherapy. 2024; 26(11):1429-1441.
9. Gluckman E, Broxmeyer HE, Auerbach AD, ... Boyse EA. Hematopoietic Reconstitution in a Patient with Fanconi's Anemia by Means of Umbilical-Cord Blood from an HLA-Identical Sibling. NEJM 1989; 321:1174-1178.
10. Verter F. Catching up with Matt Farrow in 2023. Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation Newsletter Published 2023-07
11. PubMed. Search on Vanderson Rocha leads to 434 hits.
12. ORCID. Vanderson Rocha. Accessed 2025-04-08
13. Eurocord. Vanderson Rocha, MD, PhD. Who we are. Accessed 2025-04-08
14. Hospitais Brasil. Clínica São Vicente elege hematologista para liderar unidade de Transplante de Medula e Terapia Celular. Newsletter. Published 2022-01-13
15. Instagram. De médico a paciente. @recordtvjapan. Published 2024-12-06
16. Wikipedia. Borghese Palace (Florence). Accessed 2025-04-08
17. Palazzo Borghese. Event venue. Accessed 2025-04-08
18. Cord Blood Association. A Message from President Kurtzberg about Cord Blood Connect 2025. CBA Newsletter. Published 2025-04