April 27, 2011 - FamilyCord and the UC San Diego Medical Center announced an agreement establishing FamilyCord as the new storage partner for all cellular therapy products (also known as peripheral blood progenitor cells).
FamilyCord has successfully relocated all of UC San Diego's stored cellular therapy products to its state-of-the-art facility in Los Angeles and will provide ongoing storage to all patients interested in preserving their cells.
"It has been a pleasure working with the UC San Diego team," said Richard Jennings, President of FamilyCord. "We are proud to be working with such an outstanding medical facility."
FamilyCord, one of the nation's leading umbilical cord blood stem cell banks, features a specially designed collection kit as part of their mission to redefine and improve the scientific standards for the cord blood banking industry. The kit offers multiple benefits over "card board" kits, including temperature stabilization that provides up to ten hours of protection (versus 30 minutes with standard kits), and conical tube protectors to provide more crush protection and leak prevention.
"As more and more families take advantage of cord blood banking, it is imperative that we as an industry do everything we can to insure that their investment is protected," says Jennings.
FamilyCord's new kit also utilizes liquid CPD anticoagulant in the collection bag, which provides up to 58% more CD34+ stem cells than using the dry heparin (American Society of Hematology, 2009).
Media Contact: Scott Brown (310) 496-5681
Founded in 1997, FamilyCord is a subsidiary of the California Cryobank and is registered with the FDA and accredited by the AABB (American Association of Blood Banks). For more information, call 888-828-2673 or visit www.familycord.com.
The UC San Diego Health System's mission is to take exceptional care of people by providing excellent and compassionate patient care, advancing medical discoveries, and educating the healthcare professionals of tomorrow.