New study uses cord blood to treat newborn brain injury

Oxygen deprived newborns are the focus of a new study underway at Duke University in North Carolina. The pilot programme is being led by Dr Joanne Kurtzberg, who succesfully reinfused New Zealander Maia Friedlander with her own cord blood last year. The purpose of the pilot study is to evaluate the safety and feasibility of infusions of autologous (the patient’s own) umbilical cord blood stem cells in term gestation newborn infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. For full details of the study – http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00593242?term=cord+blood&rank=11