Lions Clubs please join the Foundation by raising funds over the summer period by doing what we do best, that is, selling sausages to the public. We are supporting the Cord Blood Bank at the Royal Children’s Hospital in providing stem cells
from their Master Cell Bank to research institutions.
Stem cells play a mighty role in the growth, repair and maintenance of the body’s tissues and organs. Blindness treatment
Collaboration with the Children’s Medical Research Institute in Sydney has derived retinal organoids from the iPSC’s provided by the Master Cell Bank. These retinal cells will be used to develop a new cell therapy to treat blindness. The in-vitro experiments to date are proceeding well.
Heart Research
The aim of this study was to investigate cord blood mononuclear stem cells on the blood cells of the heart. It was found that the cord blood cells prepared by the Bank do enhance blood vessel formation in the heart.
Blood Cancer treatment
The Cord Blood Bank has produced induced pluripotent stem cells from cord blood cells so that the researchers can turn these into NK, Natural Killer cells to target the cancer cells in the blood.
MND treatment
The Cord Blood Bank has produced induced pluripotent stem cells from cord blood cells so the researchers can turn these into neurons that can be implanted directly into the spinal cord in order to functionally compensate for those lost to the disease process.
Stem Cell treatment for premature babies
Monash University (Department of Paediatrics) – Researching the use of cord blood stem cells on premature babies who often have brain, lung and other problems in the hope of finding successful treatments