An Australian toddler is the youngest person in the world to receive an infusion of her own umbilical cord blood in the hope of preventing diabetes.
Since her birth, doctors have routinely tested Lucy’s blood for an antibody indicating she was on the path to develop type-1 diabetes. When her sister Ava (now 7) was a toddler, she developed the condition – increasing the odds that Lucy would too.
So when Lucy tested positive for the antibody she was given an infusion of her own cord blood at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, where Professor Maria Craig is running this ground-breaking trial.
“We’re using the cord blood to switch off the immune process that has already commenced in Lucy and set her on the pathway to type-1 diabetes,” Prof Craig said.
“We believe the right strategy is to get in very early at this young age, when we have the greatest chance of success at resetting her immune system.”
Cord blood is rich in important and unique immune cells known as regulatory T-cells and stem cells that can be used to treat diseases.
Professor Maria Craig is interested in recruiting more babies for the ground-breaking trial in Sydney.

Watch the video and read Lucy’s story here

New research out of Sweden, has found that having children adds as much as two years to your life expectancy. Author of the study, Dr Karin Modig from the Karolinska Institutet, calls the years “payback time”. 

The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, showed that men and women with at least one child will have an increased longevity in their old age because of support from their adult children.

As part of the study everyone born in Sweden between 1911 and 1925 was identified, as were their children. Age-specific death risks were assigned to the cohort of parents and to the cohort of older Swedes who did not have children. 

“Men and women having at least one child experienced lower death risks than childless men and women. At 60 years of age, the difference in life expectancy was 2 years for men and 1.5 years for women,” the authors of the study concluded.

At 3 and a half years old, most children know around 800 words and can talk in complete sentences, however little Isabella Barney from New York was not most children. Diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia Syndrome (CAS), she had difficulty moving the body parts that are required for clear speech – lips, jaw and tongue. Although she was undoubtedly a bright child, she couldn’t even say her brother’s name.

While a diagnosis of CAS usually means years of speech therapy, Isabella was lucky enough to have far-sighted parents. When she was born, Steven and Rosa Barney had arranged to have her cord blood collected and cryogenically frozen.

Having cord blood stem cells available opened new doors for Isabella’s CAS treatment. Steven discovered that Duke University in North Carolina was doing cord blood transfusions to treat apraxia and was having success. Deciding to give Isabella the benefit of her banked stem cells was a logical decision.

The transfusion process took around 10 minutes and Isabella was only in hospital for a couple of hours. Within three weeks, her speech had improved noticeably. Not only could she say her brother Matthew’s name clearly, she could form complete sentences. Every day she gained new words, as well as the confidence that comes with being able to express herself easily.

Isabella’s family liken their cord blood experience to winning the lottery. If they hand’t stored their little girl’s cord blood, treating her apraxia would have been a long and frustrating process – potentially years of therapy.

Every day Isabella gets chattier and more confident as her brain learns how to plan the precise facial movements required for speech.

Stem cell scientists have accidentally found a treatment for eczema that could bring hope to millions.

Even if you don’t suffer from Eczema yourself, you probably know someone who does. The familiar, inflamed, red and itchy skin – often on the face, arms and hands – causes discomfort to thousands of Kiwis.

In New Zealand, Eczema currently affects up to 2% of adults and up to 20% of children. It is the result of a genetically inherited condition that causes too much of a certain type of antibody to be made. Similar to disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, the body actually begins to attack itself, resulting in painful inflammation symptoms that are hard to manage.

All that may be about to change, though. Recent UK research into adverse reactions to stem cell transplants revealed that the proteins in cord blood, could actually treat a whole host of inflammation-related conditions.

The newly discovered proteins play an essential role in the pregnancy process, disabling “natural killer cells” so the mother’s immune system doesn’t attack her baby. The results, published in the European Journal of Immunology, show so many exciting applications, but top of the list is Eczema.

“Currently, conditions such as eczema are hard to manage, so this accidental discovery could potentially offer a major breakthrough,” says Aurore Saudemont PhD, senior research scientist at Anthony Nolan, a blood cancer charity in the UK. “This could be life-changing for patients, as their symptom such as inflammation, itching and redness can be a serious problem.”

Summer is fast approaching… and sadly, drowning remains one of the leading causes of death for children. But one family’s decision to bank their daughters cord blood at birth gave her a second chance after drowning.

After falling into her family swimming pool Sparrow Morris was without oxygen for 45 minutes, the outlook for one year old Sparrow Morris was bleak.

Sparrow suffered severe brain damage – which left her functioning at the level of a 3 month old. Tonya Morris, her mother, said Sparrow wasn’t able to sit or speak and was in a vegetative state.

Here in New Zealand, drowning remains the 3rd highest cause of death – after road accidents and falls.

And, according to Water Safety New Zealand, for every actual drowning there are another eight near fatal drowning incidents.

Drowning affects all New Zealanders regardless of age, ethnicity, gender or social economic background.

But because Sparrows parents had banked her cord blood at her birth. She was re-infused with these precious stem cells.

Just days after the treatment her mother said Sparrow began speaking again.

Tonya said cord blood has saved her daughters life.

Florida Childrens Hospital in Orlando is launching a trial that will use children’s stem cells to treat acquired sensorineural hearing loss.

This groundbreaking phase 1 trial will be assesing whether a childs own cord blood can improve inner ear function, speech and language development.

Sensioneural hearing loss is the most common type of hearing loss, with up to 15% of children affected to some degree. This condition is caused by damage to the hair cells in the inner ear – which can be a result of birth injury, illness, head trauma, medication and excessive noise exposure. It is commonly seen in premature babies – and with more and more children surviving premature birth, doctors are seeing an increase in the number of young children with significant sensioneural hearing loss.

There are currently no therapies that are able to reverse the damage – with hearing aids and cochlear implants only reducing the symptoms rather than repairing the cells themselves.

Dr James Baumgartner, MD, Surgical Director of Florida Hospital for Childrens Comprehensive Paediatric Epilepsy Centre is the principal Director of this FDA approved trial. He says ‘Using cord blood stem cells to help trigger the body’s own repair mechanism could provide a non-invasive therapeutic option that does not exist today.’

The children in the study will be reinfused with their own cord blood, and then assessed at follow up appointments at 1 month, 6 months and 12 months after treatment. Doctors hope to see an improvement in inner ear function, speech and language development. The results of this study could be life-changing for children suffering from sensioneural hearing loss – which limit their development of language skills – affecting both their academic and social development.

This trial is one of a number of FDA-approved trials currently underway that are using cord blood in the field of regenerative medicine – to treat cerebral palsy, autism, paediatric stroke and brain injury amongst many other illnesses and injuries. The rapid development and promising results from these trials predict a bright future for the treatment of these diseases with stem cells!

Just hours after Bailey was born, her mother Rebecca noticed she was moving strangely. Despite initially being given the all clear, a brain scan was performed by the paediatric neurology team shortly after Bailey left hospital.

The results showed that she had suffered a stroke in utero. The doctors believe that a piece of placenta had travelled through her umbilical cord and into her brain – causing widespread damage to the left side of her brain. The strange movements noticed by Bailey’s mother were in fact seizures. With up to 25% of Baileys brain affected, she was unable to move the whole of her right arm and part of her right leg.

Bailey’s future seemed uncertain – with doctors predicting that she may never walk or talk without intensive therapy.

However her parents had banked Baileys cord blood at birth, and when they realised that it could be used to treat her brain injury they knew this was something they had to do for Bailey. Just like Kiwi children Maia and Phoenix, it wasn’t long before she was on her way to Duke University to have her cord blood reinfused by Dr Joanne Kurtzberg.

The simple 15 minute procedure is thought to promote healing of the injured brain tissue – reducing inflammation and causing new blood vessels and nerves cells to grow.

Since her reinfusions Bailey hasn’t looked back – at 14 months old she is reaching all the milestones. She can use both sides of her body, and is learning to walk and talk just like other children her age.

Dr Charles Law, the medical director at United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Birmingham calls her recovery ‘remarkable’. He saw Bailey both before and after she was treated with her own cord blood, and he says that, since the reinfusions, he wouldnt even notice anything was wrong with Bailey unless he was looking for it. Just like so many other children treated with their own cord blood, her clinical signs do not match up with the brain injury she suffered, nor what doctors predicted for her future – which is now looking incredibly bright thanks to cord blood!

You can read the full interview with Fox News here.

Grace was a happy, healthy little girl – until complications during oral surgery at two years old caused a major brain injury. She was diagnosed with hypertonic cerebral palsy, which left her weak and barely able to move.

Fortunately, Grace’s cord blood was stored at birth, so she was able to receive life-changing cord blood treatment at Duke University in the States.

Since 5 year old Grace was reinfused with her own cord blood, her mother Olivia has noticed huge improvements, saying;

“She’s already gotten so much strength. She’s dancing. She’s walking forward, backwards, sideways, in circles. That’s the most beautiful thing, to see her light up.”

Grace continues to get better every day – she is able to hold a pencil, and her mother has watched her write her name for the first time. These amazing changes would not have been possible had she not had her cord blood banked at birth.

Watch Grace’s inspiring story here.

In 2010, New Zealander Emily Sanson-Rejouis and her husband Emmanuel were in Haiti working for the UN peace-keeping mission when they faced incomprehensible tragedy. A massive earthquake claimed the lives of over 300,000 people including Emily’s husband and two of their three young daughters, Kofie-Jade (5yrs) and Zenzie (3yrs).

Thankfully little Alyahna (who was only one year old at the time) was rescued after 22 hours under rubble – injured but still alive. After the earthquake, Emily and Alyahna returned to Nelson to rebuild their lives.

The family have found happiness again and last month Alyahna became the proud older sister of little Oscar – as Emily and her partner Hugh welcome a new baby boy into the world. Alyahna’s delight is clear to see as she holds her new baby brother in her arms.

Emily says of cord blood banking: “I have always felt strongly that cord blood banking can provide potentially life changing opportunities to our children should they have a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition or disability.“

Hugh, Emily and Alyahna

So just like Alyahna, Oscar had his cord blood collected and stored at CordBank for the future.