Every parent’s dream for their child should be celebrated. At CBR, we have dreams, too. We’d like to celebrate some accomplishments with you from 2016! Here’s a year in review from CBR:

Making A Difference

• With your help, CBR raised over $30,000 for the Newborn Possibilities Fund, including a matching challenge on Cyber Monday. For every new enrollment received on that day, CBR made a matching donation to this special fund, which provides financial support in the form of grants to non-profit organizations committed to improving the lives of their patient communities. Thanks to the donations we received from our families and these initiatives, the possibilities of helping children like Ava Johnson use their cord blood stem cells are bright.

Read Ava’s story here

Watch the little ballerina in action

Interested in donating? DanceWithAva.com

• CBR was a sponsor for Duke Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program’s Rainbow of Heroes Walk.
• We participated in The March of Dimes’ March For Babies and raised $15,000 for their cause, as well as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Events, raising nearly $7,000 in donation contributions.

Advancing Stem Cell Science

• The initial results of our Family Health Registry^TM were published in the August edition of Maternal and Child Health. This research article described the data collected from CBR families who were surveyed to help identify conditions that are treatable or under research for potential treatment with umbilical cord blood – the first known survey and analysis of its kind.
• CBR was an exhibitor at and Bronze Sponsor of the 2016 World Stem Cell Summit, a premier gathering of more than 1,200 prominent stem cell scientists, patient advocacy groups, business leaders, and other stakeholders from the global stem cell scientific community. The annual summit was a packed 4 day agenda featuring presentations about the latest in stem cell science, including a presentation from Heather Brown, Vice President of Scientific and Medical Affairs at CBR, on fundamental aspects of cord blood and newborn stem cell preservation.
• CBR presented preliminary research at the International Cord Blood Symposium:

1. CBR’s Science and Medical Team presented findings from the Family Health Registry¹ on how ongoing data collection can help enable cord blood banks to be better informed about the medical status of client families. This program also helps connect eligible families to clinical trials and learn more about certain conditions through observational research. Through CBR’s Family Health Registry, over 5,300 individuals from CBR families have been identified with a condition that may be treatable today with cord blood stem cells or that are being studied for potential future stem cell applications.
2. Dr. Michael Chez from the Sutter Medical Group presented preliminary results of the CBR supported clinical trial² aimed to research the safety and efficacy of the use of a patient’s own cord blood in children with autism. Preliminary results presented showed that no serious adverse events occurred during the study suggesting that this procedure is safe in the study population.
3. Kate Brown, PhD, CBR’s Principal Scientist, presented on the preservation of umbilical cord tissue as a composite (or whole) material and its suitability for newborn tissue banking.³ She also described a novel scoring system developed by the CBR scientific team that can be used for statistical analysis of biological variability and process monitoring.

• Todd Van Horn, CBR’s General Manager, was appointed to the Cord Blood Association’s Board of Directors. The Cord Blood Association is an international nonprofit organization that promotes the work of the cord blood community for the purpose of saving lives, improving health and changing medicine.
• We celebrated our first anniversary of joining AMAG Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company whose products support the health of patients in maternal health, anemia management and cancer supportive care, in addition to now providing newborn stem cell preservation!

Building Community

• CBR client families came to visit our laboratory and storage facility in Tucson, AZ – specifically designed for newborn stem cell processing and storage – to see where their stem cells live!
• We jumped on the #MannequinChallenge bandwagon. Watch now
• Clients shared some seriously adorable pictures with us for our:

#CBRSpooktacularContest

#CBRShowNTellContest

#CBRDaddyDazeContest

#CBRMomMomentContest

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see them all or share yours with us, too!

Winning Awards

• CBR was proud to be singled out as the most influential and innovative cord blood bank worldwide by stem cell market research firm, BioInformant.
• Recipient of Red Tricycle’s Totally Awesome Award for Most Reassuring Cord Blood Bank. The largest awards program in the greater parenting community, the Totally Awesome Awards recognize the best family-friendly products, parenting tips and resources for babies and tots across the nation and allows parents to elect their favorites from a curated list of the best-of-the-best.

We can’t wait to see what 2017 brings!  Happy New Year!

Sources:

1. Brown, H.L. et al. A New Model for Cord Blood Bank Research: The Longitudinal Umbilical Stem Cell Monitoring and Treatment Research (LUSTRE) Registry. Transfusion. 2016;56:1A–12A. Abstract ICBS1624.
2. Chez, M. et al. A Placebo-Controlled Trial to Assess Autologous Umbilical Cord Blood (AUCB) Therapy in Children with Autism. Transfusion. 2016;56:1A–12A. Abstract ICBS1622.
3. Brown, K.S. Cryopreservation of Cord Tissue. In Mathew, A.J. (Chair), Isolation and Cryopreservation of Cord-Related Tissue Workshop at the 2016 International Cord Blood Symposium, San Francisco.