With five million dollars in funding from the State of New Jersey, this innovative program will allow the Institute to collect and store blood extracted from the umbilical cord after a baby's delivery. The blood is an excellent source for stem cells that can be used to combat a variety of cancers, blood disorders, and a range of other diseases. A public resource, the NJCBB will make umbilical cord blood transplantation available to all citizens.

Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells
Stem cells are the primitive cells found in various tissues of the body that can differentiate (change) into the specific functional cells of various tissues. They are the source of tissue renewal and growth. In the blood, these stem cells are called 'hematopoietic' stem cells, and they produce the steady stream of blood cells, such as white and red cells and platelets, that keep us healthy.

While bone marrow can be used as a source of these stem cells, it is often difficult to obtain, and scientists have had to search for other sources. A baby in the womb is busy making new blood so his or her circulating blood is very rich in hematopoietic stem cells. When a baby is born, a certain amount of blood remains behind in the umbilical cord and placenta, and this blood can be captured for use as a source of these precious stem cells.

Prospects for Transplant Success
In 1988, the first cord blood transplant was performed to treat a young French boy with a bone marrow failure disease called Fanconi anemia. The transplant successfully replaced the boy's diseased blood cells with healthy cells from his newborn sister. He is alive and well today. Since that time, many cord blood transplants, estimated to be at least two thousand procedures world-wide, have been performed.

Cord blood has several advantages over bone marrow transplants. Stem cell transplants require a less precise match than do bone marrow transplants. And because the cord blood will be drawn from an ethnically diverse pool, it will also mean more opportunity for minority transplant patients who are not well represented in current blood banks. Finally, stem cells have proved to be better tolerated in humans, and result in fewer incidences of "graft vs. host disease," where the host cells attack the new cells.

Collecting Cord Blood
Donna Altamuro is the Program Director of the NJCBB. In this role, Ms. Altamuro builds relationships between the blood bank and the collecting hospitals. At this time, the collecting hospitals are Cooper Health System and Our Lady of Lourdes in Camden, NJ, and Virtua Health System Hospitals in Voorhees and Burlington County, NJ.

"Obtaining blood from the umbilical cord after the delivery of the baby is painless and does not interfere with the birthing process," says Ms. Altamuro. The program's goal is to make donating cord blood a routine part of giving birth. "This will build the NJCBB and provide a large and diverse collection, which is necessary in order for this bank to be useful for everyone."

Ms. Altamuro and the staff of NJCBB "prescreen" potential donors. Prescreening consists of obtaining an informed consent and medical history. "When a donor successfully completes the prescreening phase," explains Ms. Altamuro, "her cord blood will be collected after she gives birth to her baby and the NJCBB staff will be paged to pick up the cord blood and transport it to Coriell Institute for processing and freezing." The blood is then banked for possible future use in stem cell transplantation. Potential donors learn about the program from their child birth educators, hospital tours, physicians, certified nurse mid-wife, etc. Women who are interested can call so that an informed consent can be mailed for their review. After the informed consent is reviewed and signed, a medical history is taken.

Why Coriell?
Coriell Institute has a long history in cell banking and cryogenic storage (freezing). A scientific organization with nearly five decades of expertise, the Institute is the world's foremost repository for the collection, freezing, and retrieval of human cell cultures and has developed the highest standards for handling and preserving cells and tissues. With this depth of experience, it was an obvious site to conduct this complex program for the benefit of the citizens of the State, country and world.

James S. Blumenstock, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Public Health, Protection, and Prevention Programs for the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services, has worked closely with the Coriell Institute over the last two years to foster the development of a sound plan in accordance with the statute that authorized the award for the blood bank's creation. He comments, "The Administration of the State of New Jersey is pleased to be able to support this important venture, not only through the financial aspects of the project, but also through its technical support of the New Jersey Cord Blood Bank."

Assemblyman Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano (R-Bergen, Essex and Passaic) first introduced this legislation to fund the establishment of a NJ Cord Blood Bank for five million dollars in April 1998, and has followed the progress and championed this important program since that time. "I couldn't be any prouder of this piece of legislation," he says, "because it gives hope of continued life to those who have very little hope."

Committed to Promoting Umbilical Cord Blood Research
In addition to building and maintaining a very large bank of hematopoietic stem cells from cord blood, the Coriell Institute is also conducting research on several important problems related to stem cells. In particular, Coriell scientists are trying to understand how the blood-forming cells become leukemic and how one can grow more stem cells.

Previously unknown cells in the blood-forming pathway have been discovered at Coriell, and Institute scientists are developing a program to search for new growth factors that will enable us to grow more stem cells than can be captured from a cord blood collection from the umbilical cord and placenta. Such research is a key corollary of the development of the New Jersey Cord Blood Bank.

Information about this program can be obtained by calling:

Donna Altamuro
Program Director, New Jersey Cord Blood Bank
1-866-728-2673

She will be happy to talk with you about the donation process and how you can enroll in this important program.