Hospital offers option for storing stem cells from cord, placenta, deal called a first in the USA

A Livingston hospital has launched what is believed to be the country's first formal program devoted to encouraging expectant families to bank both placental and umbilical cord stem cells. Officials at St. Barnabas Medical Center, where the most New Jersey babies are born each year, said yesterday they have established the program with LifebankUSA of Cedar Knolls, a division of Celgene, a Summit biotechnology company.

"We felt the research of the Celgene scientists held such promise that it would be worth it for our patients to know about it," said Richard Miller, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at St. Barnabas. "It's for those who are willing to make that investment today for the promise of very exciting potential therapies in the future." Stem cells, the building blocks of tissue, blood and the immune system, can renew indefinitely and form specialized types of cells like blood and nerve cells. Those taken from the placenta and umbilical cord are categorized as "adult" stem cells because they are not drawn from embryos. Their more controversial, highly flexible cousins, known as embryonic stem cells, are loathed by some because the process of extracting them destroys the embryo.

The stem cells extracted at St. Barnabas will be stored in cryogenic tanks at Lifebank. The company was the first in the country last May to offer placental stem cell banking. Working with medical center physicians will be a boon to the biotech firm as well, according to Robert Hariri, who founded Lifebank in 1998 and still heads it under the auspices of Celgene. "It's important in these programs to work at an efficiency and volume where the physicians that are involved in this process and selection become true experts," Hariri said.

Bioethics & Science | New Jersey Hospital Launches Program Encouraging Expectant Couples To Bank Adult Stem Cells

Livingston, New Jersey-based Saint Barnabas Medical Center officials on Tuesday announced that the clinic has partnered with LifebankUSA to launch a program devoted to encouraging expectant couples to bank both umbilical cord blood and placental stem cells, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. The program plans to encourage expectant couples to store the stem cells in cryogenic tanks at Lifebank, a division of the pharmaceutical company Celgene, which charges up to several thousand dollars to extract stem cells and an annual fee to store them. The medical center plans to add comprehensive information about stem cell banking to its course offerings for new parents. Richard Miller, chair of hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said that stem cell banking "is not something we are going to push [expectant parents] to buy," adding, "We hope to make this part of their health care choice." Officials said they plan to more consistently train physicians through the program. "It's important in these programs to work at an efficiency and volume where the physicians that are involved in this process and selection become true experts," Robert Hariri, head of Lifebank, said. Miller said that stem cell banking is "for those who are willing to make that investment today for the promise of very exciting potential therapies in the future" (MacPherson, Newark Star-Ledger, 3/7).

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