LifeCell becomes India's top cord blood stem cell registry

LifeCell, with over 5,000 qualified units of cord blood available for sharing even with an unrelated patient, has become India's biggest cord blood stem cell registry, a statement said on Monday.

Within just four months of its launch, the stem cell bank has surpassed the collective number of cord blood units preserved with public banks in India, where the probability of finding a match has been low.

Over 70 per cent of Indian patients requiring donor stem cells are left in the lurch.

But with the community banking model at LifeCell amalgamating the open access of a public bank with the availability of vast yet under-utilised stem cell resources of a private bank, things changed, Mayur Abhaya, LifeCell CEO, said.

Abhaya said all this was at no additional cost and within the framework of the community. "This has laid the ground for the creation of an unprecedented Indian origin stem cell registry."

LifeCell plans to expand its existing customer base. Upgrading the community banking model, it will grow 10 times larger by the end of the year, the release said.

It plans to give every patient access to a well matched cord blood unit vital for a life-saving transplant.

All the units in the registry meet the current US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards for listing.

LifeCell will also undertake the high-cost, high resolution HLA typing of samples, based on next generation sequencing.

This brings a host of benefits, including a greater chance of finding a match.

Better matching will lead to better treatment outcomes, giving transplant physicians the confidence on the quality of the sample.

"Our hi-resolution sequencing of HLA typing would escalate the standards in the search of matching units for transplants," Abhaya added.

--IANS

rt/in/vt