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Branson to store umbilical cord blood |
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Written by asap
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Saturday, 03 February 2007 |
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You should cut the cord, but what about the blood?
British entrepreneur Richard Branson said Thursday he is setting up a nonprofit blood bank to allow parents to store stem cells from their children's umbilical cords.
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A LOT OF BLOOD:
The airline, mobile phone and media magnate, head of the Virgin Group, said he hoped the Virgin Health Bank would eventually store up to 300,000 umbilical cord blood samples.
NOTICING A NEED
Branson said he came up with the idea after being approached by Britain's national blood bank for help boosting the number of umbilical blood samples.
FUNDS
Branson said any money generated by the bank would be donated to charitable organizations to further research into cord blood stem cells.
REALLY HELPFUL
Umbilical cords are usually discarded after childbirth, but stem cells can be extracted from the blood. The cells, kept in cold storage, can later be used to help regenerate tissue such as bone marrow, making the cells particularly important for treating blood cancers and diseases like leukemia and sickle cell anemia. | Only registered users can write comments. Please login or register. |
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