News

Jul 2016   CariCord & ClinImmune are the only family/public banking partnership that provides parents with cord blood storage in an FDA licensed public bank. Now they have teamed with ASCEND Therapeutics® to develop and deliver education to obstetricians who are responsible for the healthcare of expectant mothers.

Jul 2016   StemCyte has provided a total of over 2,000 cord blood units to over 315 transplant centers in 38 countries on 6 continents to date, treating over 40 different diseases.

Jul 2016   PacifiCord provides concierge services to their family banking clients in the United States, but is also part of the HealthBanks Biotech Group of public and private cord blood banks operating in five countries.

Jun 2016   His doctors said that Tomas would not be able to walk or talk, but he has overcome tetra spastic cerebral palsy and acts like a normal boy his age.

Jun 2016   The Icla da Silva Foundation is the largest recruitment center for the Be The Match® Registry in the United States. It recruits over 38,000 new potential bone marrow donors every year, with a strong focus on minority communities. The Icla da Silva Foundation also distributes cord blood educational brochures from the Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood Foundation that are available in over a dozen languages.

Jun 2016   Worldwide, about 37 million people are living with HIV, including more than 2 million children. A rare subset of the human population possess a natural mutation which prevents the HIV virus from entering their cells. A stem cell transplant from a donor who carries this mutation can provide a functional cure for AIDS patients. However, there are not enough donors who carry the mutation to provide matching transplants for the large and diverse population of AIDS patients. Dr. Walker proposes to use gene editing to create a bank of cord blood stem cells that carry the mutation for HIV protection and can provide life-saving transplants for AIDS patients.

May 2016   Hemafund cord blood bank in Kyiv Ukraine has provided cord blood to help over 360 children who needed surgery shortly after birth. Among them 174 children with complex critical congenital heart defects were saved in the CorDi Program. This program is in collaboration with the Scientific-Practical Medical Center of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery led by Prof. Illya Yemets. The CorDi Program makes it possible to identify children with serious heart defects in utero, arrange to collect their cord blood at birth, and rush the children to surgery supported by cord blood within hours of birth. Hemafund is committed to medical research and public health programs that may improve the lives of families in the Ukraine.

May 2016   Editorial from Kyle Cetrulo of the Perinatal Stem Cell Society: I strongly urge the cord blood banking community to rally behind a proposed bill currently in the US congress call the “Reliable and Effective Growth for Regenerative Health Options that Improve Wellness”, or the REGROW Act. There needs to be a regulatory paradigm shift that allows patients access to autologous cellular therapies. As we stand today, it will be very difficult for a private cord blood banking clients to access treatment to use their own child’s banked cord blood to treat their child’s cerebral palsy in the United States - outside of future clinical trials - unless the regulatory structure changes.

May 2016   Interview with Prof. Joanne Kurtzberg that originally appeared in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot Saturday Supplement 6 April 2016. Reported by Smadar Shir and translated by Tali Pelz.

Apr 2016   To date, most stem cell therapies for autoimmune diseases have been autologous stem cell transplants (AHSCT). Exciting results have been reported from clinical trials for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In most trials, roughly half of patients who receive AHSCT for MS see the disease progression stop. Transplant response is better for patients who have a shorter history of illness, with some reporting dramatic improvements. Today, the majority of patients in cell trials for autoimmune diseases receive infusions of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Therapy with MSC enables MS patients to have improved disability scores without undergoing chemotherapy.