Save the Cord Foundation and Cord Blood Association (CBA) have come together for an exclusive educational project designed to dispel some of the most common myths or misunderstandings regarding cord blood.  Working as a team, we interviewed key leaders and experts in the cord blood industry and several cord blood transplant recipients. The questions were collected and curated by CBA. The interviews were led by Charis Ober, Executive Director of Save the Cord Foundation, during the inaugral Cord Blood Connect meeting in Miami, Florida. To date, we have produced 9 videos highlighting a selection of the common cord blood myths provided by CBA. 

We recommend you begin exploring this educational series by watching this interview with Dr. Colleen Delaney and her patient, Gregg Gordon. 

Collecting cord blood is simple. However, just like the collection of organs for transplant there are several rules that must be followed in order to ensure the quality and safety of the collection. When these criteria are not met, it can put patients at risk, make the collection useless or potentially destroy the collection. Keeping the cord blood processing laboratory clean, sanitized, and disinfected is crucial to product quality and safety. Although there is industry guidance for cleaning procedures, laboratory practices often vary depending on location, regulatory requirements, product type, and facility design. In addition, cord blood banks must always have an eye on the future and the potential new applications for cord blood stem cells in regenerative medicine, immunotherapy, expansion, etc. These future applications will have new requirements, yet the cord blood to be used for those applications is probably being collected now. Hence, there is a constant need to be one step ahead of the requirements and to think strategically about your cord blood bank's collection processing in the laboratory.

How can your cord blood bank be prepared for the new demands of the industry? Imagine the disappointment if one of your clients who required their collection in the future for one of these new therapies was refused simply because the processing did not meet requirements. Are you providing the best in cord blood processing for your clients and potential patients? 

In this edition of Share the Science, we welcome Ed Brindle who is Director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs for Insception Lifebank, co-chair of both the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) standards committee and the Cord Blood Processing Standards’ Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) committee. He will highlight the best practices used by successful cord blood processing laboratories and illustrates how you can implement them at your facility. The discussion will also look to the future and consider the implications of potential advances in cord research on your lab's cord blood collection criteria and processing. 

As an attendee of this webinar, you will also have an opportunity to ask questions directly to Mr. Brindle. 

This informative session is presented by Ed Brindle. With more than 20 years combined experience in clinical laboratory sciences and cellular therapies both in United Kingdom and Canada, Mr. Brindle is the Director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs for Insception Lifebank. Mr. Brindle is also co-chair of both the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) standards committee and the Cord Blood Processing Standards’ Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) committee.

Mr. Brindle is a Qualified NetCord FACT Cord Blood Processing Inspector and actively carries out inspections of International FACT Accredited Cord Blood Banks for compliance to current NetCord FACT Standards. He is also an active member of the Cord Blood Processing standards committee. In addition, Mr. Brindle is active as a Cord Blood and CT assessor with the AABB. He routinely carries out the assessment of various National and International Cell therapy facilities to ensure compliance with the current AABB Cellular Therapy Standards.​

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​We wish to thank Ed Brindle for volunteering his time to speak on
Share the Science and sharing his valuable insight on cord blood collection processing.
We also wish to thank our generous sponsors, Mediware Inc., who continue
to support cord blood education through our “Share the Science” series.