Cord Blood Stem Cells
When a baby is born, the umbilical cord is very rich in stem cells. Newcastle has one of only two publically operated 'cord blood banks' in the UK. It stores umbilical cords donated by parents at the birth of their baby and are used both for direct benefit to patients and for research programmes.
We have been working on umbilical cord stem cells for some years and are looking at ways of transforming them into different tissue types. These cells are already used in work that directly benefits patients suffering from leukaemia and other diseases of the blood. There is some evidence that these stem cells are pluripotent, that is they are more like embryonic stem cells than adult stem cells.
The cord blood team has identified a very rare type of cell in this cord blood which could potentially be turned into a wide range of other cell types. Much further work will be needed, but there are a wide range of potential uses.
