​​Save the Cord Foundation and WellSky are proud to welcome Dr. Camillo Ricordi, as our featured speaker for our next edition of Share the Science on June 10th, 2021 2pm ET / 11am PT. Join us to hear Dr. Ricordi discuss a recent study using cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell infusions to treat COVID-19 patients suffering from the most severe conditions. RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE.
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Share the Science is a free webinar series focused on the cord blood industry and the latest research in this field.  As always, we invite both health professionals and the general public to join us for this unique online educational series. Learn more about this exciting educational series here.

Dr. Ricordi and his team began to document their ground-breaking study using cord blood-derived MSCs to treat COVID-19 patients beginning in the spring of 2020, at the height of the pandemic. It was a moment of incredible challenges for healthcare professionals around the globe. Everyone was desperate to understand this new, mysterious disease. Cases were increasing exponentially everywhere. News agencies in every country began to count the daily death rates. Many countries decided to lockdown. The new normal was bleak, but doctors and nurses on the front lines were not giving up. They were looking for new ways to treat COVID-19 patients.

Building on a very small study in China, Dr. Ricordi and his team at the University of Miami led the battle against COVID-19 with their innovative study using cord blood-derived MSCs to potentially improve recovery and prevent deaths in the most severely affected patients. The results of this study were very encouraging and have laid the groundwork for further studies using umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell infusions and other similar techniques to potentially treat COVID-19.  

The group published their results in January 2021 in Stem Cells Translational Medicine: 
"Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells for COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome: A double-blind, phase 1/2a, randomized controlled trial"

​Join us on June 10th to hear Dr. Ricordi, the study’s senior author, as he reviews the data and the potential for stem cells to be used more broadly to treat COVID-19 and similar respiratory infections.

Highlights from the study:

• Patient survival at one month was 91% in the stem-cell treated group compared with 42% in the control group.
• More than 80% of the treatment group recovered by day 30, compared to 37% in the control group.
• There were no infusion-related serious side effects.
• The stem cell infusions also clearly inhibited the ‘cytokine storm,’ associated with severe COVID-19.
• A single umbilical cord contains enough mesenchymal stem cells when expanded to provide therapeutic doses for over 10,000 patients. 

Recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) require substantial follow-up care after transplant. Now, data from 1,077 consecutive adult allogeneic HCT recipients at the University of Minnesota Medical School suggest that HCTs involving umbilical cord blood (UCB) had the lowest overall health care burden in the five years after transplant.

The study also looked at HCTs with peripheral blood stem cells and bone marrow. The recipients of UCB had a lower long-term health care burden as measured by the number of:

• Visits
• Laboratory studies
• Medications
• Relative value of units billed

As cell therapy continues to offer hope for a growing number of diseases and conditions, cost remains the biggest obstacle to care. Register now to examine the findings from this research and how it may help more people experience the life-saving benefits of HCTs in the future.

​Save the Cord Foundation and WellSky are proud to welcome Dr. Curtis Cetrulo, Jr., as our featured speaker for our next edition of Share the Science on January 28th, 2021. Join us to hear Dr. Cetrulo present his amazing research regarding the use of hematopoietic stem cells in revolutionary reconstructive penis transplants.  
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Share the Science is a free webinar series focused on the cord blood industry and the latest research in this field.  As always, we invite both health professionals and the general public to join us for this unique online educational series. Learn more about this exciting educational series here.

What role do stem cells have in reconstructive transplants?

​Vascularized composite allografts (VCAs) — transplants of the face, hand, and other extremities – offer great hope for those experiencing amputation, traumatic injury, or disfiguring disease. One obstacle to these procedures is the rejection of multiple tissue types from unrelated doors.

Learn how hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) play a vital role as part of a broader immunosuppression approach that allows transplants of composite tissue types from unrelated donors to overcome rejection.

Dr. Curtis Cetrulo practices cutting-edge adult and pediatric reconstructive microsurgery, as well as hand surgery, breast and burn reconstruction, and reconstruction of extremities and traumatic facial injuries. He presents numerous inspirational examples of how VCAs are changing lives.

How has the use of HSCs changed lives? 

Dr. Cetrulo will present numerous examples from his work of how the use of HSCs has improved patient outcomes. Some of these cases have also been highlighted in the national media. The New York Times featured Dr. Cetrulo and his team in 2016 when they performed the world's first ever penis transplant.  In 2019, The LA Times featured a series of articles highlighting Dr. Cetrulo and his team following a penis transplant performed on a soldier who had been injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. 

Clearly, we still have much to learn about the use of HSCs in reconstructive transplants but thanks to Dr. Cetrulo's work we can see infinite possiblities for the use of these powerful stem cells. This is research which builds on the world of cord blood research and the use of cord blood stem cells in regenerative medicine. Understanding Dr. Cetrulo's work is key to this emerging field. 

SHARE THE SCIENCE
with

Curtis L. Cetrulo, Jr., M.D., FACS

Director of Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School

"Reconstructive Transplantation: New Paradigms, New Technologies"

Free webinar (pre-recorded).  Open to the public.
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Thursday, January 28th - 2 pm Eastern Time/ 11 am Pacific Time