Save the Cord Foundation is thrilled to announce that the Governor of Arizona, Douglas Ducey has made an official proclamation making November 15th CORD BLOOD DAY for the state. 

This proclamation coincides with celebrations worldwide for World Cord Blood Day, held on November 15th 2019.

In the proclamation, Governor Ducey recognized why cord blood is so important: 

• cord blood stem cells can be used to treat and cure over 80 life threatening diseases
• collecting and adding diverse units of cord blood is important because individuals of certain ethnic and mixed backgrounds are dramatically under represented on the national cord blood inventory.  Adding diverse units of umbilical cord blood to the registry increases the likelihood that patients from communities all across Arizona will find a life-saving cord blood match
• donated cord blood units can be listed on the nation Be The Match Registry where they are made available to any patient in need of a transplant or provided to Arizona researchers working on curing blood cancers and other diseases
• the Arizona Department of Health Services and the Arizona Biomedical Research Center, have partnered with Maricorpa Integrated Health Services, Dignity St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Chandler Regional Medical Center, Tucson Medical Center and Save the Cord Foundation. 

Learn more about the
Arizona Public Cord Blood Program.

Intel ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair), a program of Society for Science & the Public, is often referred to as the “Olympics of Science Fairs” welcoming the brightest STEM students from more than 75 different countries.  ​Each year, millions of high school aged students compete around the globe in local and school-sponsored science fairs for an opportunity to showcase their independent research and compete for approximately $4 million in prizes at Intel ISEF. Visit the official site here.

Nearly 5000 students, their teachers and mentors attend this event annually. Intel ISEF unites these top young scientific minds, showcasing their talents on an international stage, where doctoral level scientists review and judge their work. The research presented by students is of the highest caliber. 

For example, last year, one of the winners of the multi-disciplinary Dudley R. Herschbach SIYSS award was Nabeel Quryshi from the University School of Milwaukee, WI for his research, "Role of Telomerase in Vascular Function and Exploration of Mitochondrial Dynamics: A Novel Approach to Treatment of Vascular Dysfunction."

We are honored to welcome Dr. Wise Young of ​Rutgers University and the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience as our featured speaker for the Intel ISEF 2019 Symposia.

An engaging speaker and pioneer in the field, Dr. Young will speak about his ground-breaking clinical trials using cord blood to potentially treat spinal cord injury. Dr. Young will highlight the results from these clinical trials which he is leading in the US as well as across China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Norway and India via a large clinical trial network established for this purpose. In the initial results from the Phase II trial in Kunming, China, 75% of the participants (15 out of 20) recovered walking with a rolling walker.  

Dr. Young will also discuss the growing need for cord blood globally with regards to current applications to treat cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Likewise, he will highlight recent developments in the medical world that could stimulate a sudden increase in the demand for cord blood, notably in the field of regenerative medicine.  Learn more about Dr. Wise Young here.