Graduate Students Discover New Method To Collect Cord Blood Cells At A Rapid Rate

By Author: jackson daren
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The students of biomedical engineering of John Hopkins have invented a new technique of collection of cord blood cells. This group of graduate students has actually made a system that will boost the stem cell collection process from the umbilical cord and placenta of a new born. This invention is called to be a major step to treat diseases like leukemia and many other blood diseases. The model is however still in the testing phase but the results obtained in the beginning are very promising. These inventors have already formed a company and have received a patent to protect the technology.

As the need of such techniques is huge, so it will be soon used in many maternity units in the hospitals. Cord blood is a rich store of stem cells. Still ninety percent of them remain uncollected and thus are discarded. One of the chief reasons behind this is the lack of proper collection methods. This invention has been named as CBx system. During the birth of baby, few parents go for cord blood preservation in case they would ...
... be needed during future illness in their family; otherwise it is thrown away. There are many hospitals that are affiliated with public cord blood banks. Families can donate the cord blood so that it can be used to treat someone who is seriously ill, especially in case of lymphoma, blood cancer and myeloma.

The students also gave this fact that the present methods for collection are not working well as they work on the principles of gravity. The national marrow donor program said that the stem cells taken by such methods have only fifty percent of the units having sufficient stem cells to use for transplant. This new discovery is the solution to all these issues. One more organization named as national cord blood program has said that only forty percent of units meet the standards of the transplantation. The number of cells can be used for the child but not for an adult.

With more count of cord blood stem cells it could be used even for the adults who usually require more cells. The system was tested at the John Hopkins hospital and it was found that it was collecting fifty percent more cells than the other system. The team of student’s was- Christopher Chiang, James Waring, Elias Bitar, Matthew Means and Sean Monagle. The group entered this project in the business plan competition by their college and won a huge recognition and large prize money. The team’s next goal is the optimization of the system so that it would collect more stem cells. Their second objective is to make it easy to use for the hospital staff.

According to the students they had learned about the stem cells collection during their master’s program when they were on hospital rounds. They understood about the tools required for better cord blood transplant. Their clinical adviser Edith Gurewitsch also recognized the need of storage of stem cells and provided them guidance for its design. This research has given new hope to patients suffering from chronic diseases and even the scientists from the entire world.

About the author:

This article is written by Jackson daren this is having topics on cord blood cells, cord blood preservation, cord blood transplant and many more. For more: http://cryocell.blog.com/