Business & Tech

Stem Cell Bank Launches Groundbreaking Clinical Trials

The San Bruno-based company is partnering with several research institutions to look into whether umbilical cord stem cells can be used to treat conditions affecting children.

San Bruno-based Cord Blood Registry is taking part in the first Federal Drug Administration-regulated trials to study how a child's own stem cells could help treat conditions such as traumatic brain injury, hearing loss and cerebral palsy.

For the trials, several research institutions are working on three separate trials with the company, which stores umbilical cord blood stem cells and has been headquartered in the city since 1995.

"Partnering with a series of specialists who want to research the use of a child's own newborn blood stem cells on a variety of disease states allows (Cord Blood Registry) to help advance medical research for regenerative therapies by connecting the child whose family banked with (Cord Blood Registry) to appropriate researchers," Heather Brown, vice president of scientific and medical affairs at Cord Blood Registry, said in a statement.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston will be working with Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital to research hearing loss and traumatic brain injury in the first two trials.

The year-long hearing loss study will follow 10 children, ages 6 weeks to 18 months, who have sustained a post-birth hearing loss.

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The second study will enroll 10 children ages 18 months to 17 years old who have suffered a traumatic brain injury. The participants must have sustained the injury within six to 18 months of enrolling in the study.

Georgia Health Sciences University will be looking into whether using stem cells from a child's own umbilical cord could improve the quality of life for children with cerebral palsy. That study will include 40 patients and last more than a year.

Cord Blood Registry is the only stem cell bank whose clients can participate in the studies.

"The benefits of cord blood stem cells being very young, easy to obtain, unspecialized cells which have had limited exposure to environmental toxins or infectious diseases and easy to store for long terms without any loss of function, make them an attractive source for cellular therapy researchers today," Brown said.

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