Fellow Governors, Members and Friends of the APCBBC,

The next momentous phase of advances in autologous cord blood stem cell applications will be in the fields of neurological trauma and vascular ischemic injury. While collection of sufficient clinical data to promote widespread medical (and insurance) adoption is still years away, more and more studies around the world on human trials are providing very encouraging results. The excitement being generated from a trial at Duke University to treat children with Cerebral Palsy (“CP”) using their own cord blood is palpable and we also eagerly await confirmation of initial observations from StemLife on four toddlers treated with autologous cord blood infusion and low dose GCSF. While we await release of formal data from the Duke University study hopefully in 2010, the implications could be profound. Will collection of umbilical cord blood for re-infusion become the “gold standard” of treatment for babies born with CP? What impact will this have on the operation of public and private banking facilities? How will this push forward studies in ancillary therapeutic areas such as treatment of adult ischemia and stroke and traumatic neural injuries?

The first transplant using umbilical cord blood was conducted 21 years ago in Paris. By the year 2000 approximately 10 routine therapies were known. Today the number of routine therapies has increased to over 80, primarily covering blood related mutations, inherited conditions, autoimmune diseases and as far reaching as bone marrow rescue in solid cancer treatment. Given the numerous encouraging results in trials to treat cellular injury, how many conditions will be routinely treated with umbilical cord stem cells in the year 2020? - Probably several multiples of those being treated today. These advances will have profound effects on the roles of public and private banks and it is our responsibility to stay at the forefront of discussions and developments in policy, ethics and appropriate business models.

Our role as a source of reliable and responsible knowledge to parents, doctors, regulators and company stake-holders will become increasingly critical. How will we meet this challenge and ensure that standards of quality in terms of “delivery of message” are maintained?

This year, APCBBC members for the first time come together to discuss the potential of non-haematological applications of umbilical cord stem cells. The theme of the APCBBC for 2009 into 2010 is aimed at evaluating present and future clinical uses of cord blood stem cells. This year, the APCBBC is proud to host Dr. Michael Haller who will be presenting de novo work on cord blood infusions for diabetes type 1 and Dr. Riccardo Saccardi who will be presenting his work on autoimmune diseases amenable to stem cell therapy.

We thank this year’s country host Thai StemLife for setting the scene and the important agenda for our 2009 APCBBC Annual Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

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