Cord blood banking initially emerged as a commercial service in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, because of potential applications related to Transplant Medicine. While an effective therapeutic approach, this unfortunately produced low utilization rates for stored cord blood units.
As a result, Regenerative Medicine (RM) applications of cord blood emerged over time, expanding approved used for cord blood to approximately 80 total. Exciting regenerative medicine applications for umbilical cord blood include its potential to treat neurological conditions, such as cerebral palsy (CP) and autism. These applications are being researched by one of the luminaries in the field, Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development and the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank.
As the cord blood market has expanded to include a wide range of perinatal tissues, including umbilical cord tissue, placental blood and tissue, and amniotic fluid and tissue, the new frontier has become Longevity applications. Perinatal is a term describing the period right before and after birth. [Read more…]