The History of Cord Blood Banking |
| 1974 |
First report on stem/progenitor cells in human cord blood. |
| 1980's |
Cord blood shown to have similar attributes as bone marrow and recommended to be used as a bone marrow alternative for use in transplantation. |
| 1988 |
First successful cord blood transplant to regenerate blood and immune cells in Paris, France on a six-year-old boy suffering from Fanconi's Anemia, a blood disorder. |
| 1992 |
Cord Blood Registry's laboratory is founded in Tucson, Arizona. |
| 1993 |
First unrelated cord blood transplant at Duke University. |
| 1994 |
Dr. David Harris, noted cord blood expert and scientific director of Cord Blood Registry, publishes his first cord blood article. |
| 1995 |
Cord Blood Registry opens corporate headquarters in San Mateo, CA. |
| 1996 |
First U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug (IND) for cord blood - NIH/National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLB) Sponsored Cord Blood Transplantation Study (COBLT). |
| 1996 |
Cord Blood Registry begins Designated Transplant Program (DTP) (SM) to provide free cord blood banking for families with a medical need. |
| 1997 |
A successful cord blood transplant is performed on a 46-year-old man with chronic myelogenous leukemia, a type of cancer, during a clinical trial using cord blood that was expanded ex vivo. |
| 1997 |
Research is published showing that the one-year survival rate is more than twice as high if the patient receives a cord blood stem cell transplant from a relative (63 percent) vs. an unrelated cord blood stem cell transplant (29 percent). |
| 1997 |
Cord Blood Registry publishes the highest percent mononuclear cell recovery rate in the industry-99 percent. |
| 1998 |
Cord blood stem cells proven to be viable after fifteen years. |
| 1998 |
Cord Blood Registry becomes first family bank to be accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). |
| 1998 |
First successful unrelated cord blood transplant to treat a child with sickle cell anemia, a blood disorder, at the Emory University Department of Pediatrics. The child is cured. |
| 2001 |
Studies show that cord blood is a suitable alternative to bone marrow for treatment of adults with diseases treatable with a stem cell transplant. |
| 2002 |
Cord Blood Registry publishes 1 percent contamination rate-lowest in the industry. |
| 2004 |
Institute of Medicine (IOM) begins yearlong study to make recommendations for a national cord blood program. |
| 2004 |
Illinois becomes first state to enact legislation to mandate that expectant parents have the option to donate their baby's cord blood to a public bank at no cost. |
| 2005 |
Doctors initiate emerging use of cord blood stem cells to treat brain damage, diabetes, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, and stroke. |
| 2005 |
Cord Blood Registry provides cord blood stem cells to clients for use in infusions in children with anoxic brain injury, cerebral palsy and traumatic brain injury. |
| 2005 |
Researchers begin clinical trial using autologous (one's own) cord blood stem cells to treat Type 1 Diabetes. |
| 2005 |
Researchers' findings prove that primitive pluripotent "embryonic like" stem cells are present in cord blood. |
| 2005 |
Researchers around the world begin to explore techniques that will optimize the benefits of cord blood stem cells by researching cell expansion technologies, the process by which cells from cord blood are multiplied or expanded, which may enable families to use samples for more than one treatment. |
| 2005 |
Cord Blood Registry opens new, state of the art, high capacity laboratory and storage facility. |
| 2005 |
United States Congress passes national cord blood legislation. The report language accompanying the Stem Cell Research and Therapeutic Act of 2005 (H.R. 2520) supports the IOM recommendation to ensure that all pregnant women are provided with fair and balanced information about private banking, directed donation or donation to a public bank. The legislation seeks to create a national inventory of 150,000 high quality public cord blood samples. |
| 2005 |
Research shows that by age 70, the likelihood of needing an autologous stem cell transplant is 1 in 400 and the odds of being a candidate for either an allogeneic or autologous transplant is 1 in 200. This is based on diseases currently treated with stem cells. |
| 2006 |
A study reveals that only one-third of expectant mothers are aware of cord blood banking and eighty-four percent of patients who were aware, expect their healthcare provider to answer their cord blood banking questions. |
| 2006 |
Cord Blood Registry launches a company wide initiative called Principles in Action® (SM), which establishes principles to ensure that Cord Blood Registry operations maintain alignment with established laws, regulatory guidelines and marketing standards in both interactions and communications with healthcare professionals and consumers. |
| 2007 |
More than 8,000 total cord blood stem cell transplants have been performed worldwide. |
| 2007 |
Cord Blood Registry preserves cord blood stem cell samples from more than 230,000 newborns throughout the world. |
| 2007 |
First report of autologous cord blood transplantation in the treatment of a child with leukemia. |
| 2007 |
Cord blood is currently being used to treat approximately 70 life-threatening diseases. |
| 2008 |
Cord Blood Registry has provided 83 samples for client transplants, more than any other family bank. |
