|
Partner
Organisations
|
 .
|
|
Eliane Gluckman,
Lead Partner, Eurocord-ed Consortium
Welcome to the latest edition of our Eurocord-ed Newsletter. We hope that you find it informative.
Please visit us at www.eurocord-ed.org and give your comments and suggestions to the
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. We need your feedback. With your help, we will shape the website and continue to develop its content to respond to your needs.
Best wishes for 2010
Eliane Gluckman, MD;
President, Eurocord,
President ESH,
Hôpital Saint-Louis,
Paris.
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
EUROCORD-ED
|
Eurocord-ED (www.eurocord-ed.org) is an open access website that provides information and tools for basic and clinical scientists and physicians, nurses, midwives, laboratory and cord blood bank technicians.
THE FIRST ANNUAL EUROCORD-ED GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The first annual EUROCORD-ED General Assembly took place in Cap d'Ail, France, on November 25/26, 2009. The meeting gave the project partners an opportunity to overview and evaluate EUROCORD-ED achievements and to plan for future actions.
In 2010:
Cord blood banking technology:
During the first months of 2010, EUROCORD-ED will be preparing a series of technical videos filmed in EURCORD-ED partner cord blood banks in Italy, Belgium and Greece.
SOPs:
Translation of Standard Operating Procedures into several languages will continue.
Scientific and clinical summaries:
Cord Blood highlights of ASH and EHA congresses will be available. Links to articles of interest will continue to be provided.
Case Studies:
The EUROCORD-ED on-line interactive case study section will be launched.
Regulatory issues:
EUROCORD-ED will also continue to alert its Users to new regulatory tools and events.
CME accreditation:
EUROCORD-ED will seek CME accreditation of its scientific content so that users will be able to earn CME credit points for the time spent improving their knowledge and skills via the website.
In the meantime, Users will be happy to note that a new conference webcast is now available on the website:
Cour se on Organisational, Technical and Clinical Aspects of Cord Blood Banking.
This meeting took place in November 2009, under the scientific direction of A. Iacone, J. Garcia, P. Wernet, T. Bonfini and P. Rebulla
Adult Somatic Cells New Perspectives
It is also now possible to view the PowerPoint slides from the cord blood conference that took place under the scientific direction of Eliane Gluckman, in Monaco in November 2009:
The following webcasted events also continue to be freely accessible via EUROCORD-ED:
 ) Excerpts of the 13th ESH-EBMT Training Course on Blood and Marrow Transplantation held in Latimer, UK, in May 2009 under the scientific direction of J. Apperley, E. Gluckman, E. Carreras A. Gratwohl and T. Masszi
BIOLOGY AND CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF CORD BLOOD CELLS
Mandelieu, France, October, 2008.
Didi Jasmin
Director ESH
Institut Universitaire d'Hématologie,
Hôpital Saint-Louis,
Paris.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Contact Information
List of Consortium Members and affiliations
List of Workpackages and Deliverables
|
Announcement
|
THE WORLD CORD BLOOD CONGRESS 2010:
Marseille, France (November 4-7 2010)
President: E. Gluckman Scientific Committee: W. Arcese, H.E. Broxmeyer, J. Kurtzberg, F. Locatelli, A. Madrigal, V. Rocha, G. Sanz, E.J. Shpall, J. Wagner, S. Takahashi Local Organiser: C. Chabannon
|
2nd International Congress on Responsible Stem Cell Research - Monaco, Nov 28, 2009
Adult Somatic stem cells: New Perspectives
|
|
 Dr Vanderson Rocha, Eurocord
During the Monaco Meeting, one presentation summarized the current approaches to circumvent the engraftment problem after cord blood transplantation. Highlights of this presentation are summarized below.
New approaches for improving engraftment after Cord Blood Transplantation
Use of umbilical unrelated cord blood cells (UCB) as an alternative source of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has been widely used mainly for patients lacking an HLA matched donor. Despite the many advantages of using cord blood cells over bone marrow or peripheral donor volunteer stem cells (such as rapid availability, absence of risk for the donor, decreased incidence of acute GVHD, etc), the main clinical problem is the delayed engraftment that is directly correlated with the number of HSC in a CB unit.
The understanding of methods to improve collection, expansion and homing of cord blood cells; the identification of prognostic factors associated with engraftment that can be easily modified (such as strategies for donor choice), and development of new approaches (such as use of multiple donors, co-transplantation with accessory cells) are of crucial importance in order to circumvent the problem of delayed engraftment after UCBT. Those approaches , listed below, may greatly increase the quality and availability of CB for transplantation.
Experimental and clinical approaches to increase number of cord blood cells and improve engraftment after UCBT
- Increase number of cells at CB collection
- Banking cord blood units with greater volume and high number of CD34+ cells
- Perfusing the placental vessels after draining the blood from the cord
- Enhance homing of CB cells
- Inhibiting the enzymatic activity of CD26/Dipeptidylpeptidase IV (DPPIV)
- In vivo direct injection of cord blood cells into the iliac crest (Phase II clinical trials)
- In vitro and in vivo expansion of CB cells
- Using of SDF-1/CXCL12 associated to Diprotin A and/or other cytokines
- Using Notch-ligand Delta 1 (Phase II clinical trials)
- Using Copper chelator tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) (Phase II clinical trials)
- Identification of modifiable prognostic factors for engraftment
-Choosing the "best" cord blood unit based on cell dose, HLA, diagnosis, screening for antibodies against HLA, quality of CB units (table 2)
- Modifying the conditioning regimen and GVHD prophylaxis
- Increase number of cells at infusion
- Using double cord blood transplantation (on going prospective and observational studies)Using thirdy part mobilized T cell depleted haplo identical cells (Phase II trials)
- Decreasing toxicity and shorten time of aplasia
- Using reduced conditioning regimen (on going prospective and observational studies)
- Co-infusion of CB cells with accessory cells
- Using mesenchymal stem cells (Phase I/ II trials)
Dr Vanderson Rocha,
Eurocord
Hôpital Saint Louis
1, av Claude Vellefaux
75010, Paris, France
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
2nd International Congress on Responsible Stem Cell Research - Monaco, Nov 28, 2009
Adult Somatic stem cells: New Perspectives
|
|
 Ms Sara Ortica
From a scientific point of view, the congress was well organized. Its aim was to present the latest progresses in the field of adult stem cell and umbilical cord stem cell research. The congress was divided in five scientific sessions.
The first two sessions focused on the differentiation mechanisms of adult somatic stem cells. From my personal point of view, this session was the most interesting. It was pretty exhaustive: different speakers talked about the same topic, by using their preferred model as an example. Whereas the other sessions were more clinical, these first two focused more on the biological aspects of studying stem cells. In this way I could really appreciate different approaches in studying proliferation and differentiation of stem cells, which actually represents my thesis subject. We had talks on: vessels, liver, brain, adipose tissue and mesenchymal cells. In particular, I found very interesting the talk given by professor Etienne Sokal about stem and progenitor cells in liver. For my thesis in fact I'm studying liver development, and I found professor Sokal's system similar to mine.
The third session was devoted to the iPS (induced Pluripotent Stem) cells. After three years since Yamanaka exposed his revolutionary results during the first edition of the "Responsible Stem Cell Research" meeting in Rome, we had the possibility to learn about the latest advances in this field. This session was short but quite intense; I appreciated in particular the talk by professor Wang about the role of microRNA in dedifferentiation, self-renewal and differentiation of stem cells. Finally, we had two sessions devoted to the clinical use of stem cells. Adult stem cells and stem cells from the cord in fact have already 73 protocols validated in clinical studies for their use against a wide range of pathologies. We had the possibility to see the applications of these cells in treating patients with different disorders, from sclerosis and vascular diseases to the regeneration of damaged tissues. I personally found these sessions very interesting for their practical side, but also harder to understand in detail as my training is more oriented to molecular and cell biology rather then to clinical protocols.
As the title of the whole congress indicates by referring to "responsible" stem cell research, we had also some talks about bioethics, and an entire morning devoted to this subject. I found these sessions extremely interesting and quite complete. They focused in particular on the role of adult stem cells, stem cells from the cord and iPS cells as an ethical alternative to the use of embryonic stem cells. Moreover, we had the possibility to think about what it means to have a "responsibility" as scientists: does the science need limits, or its end can in itself justify the means? Many experts had the possibility to talk about these themes, and they approached the problem from different points of view (scientific, historical, ethical, political), trying to include all the multiple factors at stake. These sessions were all conceived not merely as reports done by experts, but as dialogues between the experts and the public: many questions were asked and everyone could take benefits from these exchanges. In conclusion, all the speakers underlined the fact that stem cell research seems to be very promising, and in particular that adult stem cells and stem cells from the cord already offer validated clinical trials to treat a wide range of diseases, as we saw in all the scientific talks, without concerning ethical problems.
I found the organization of the whole meeting very appropriate. The auditorium was excellent and very well organized, with a large room for the scientific talks and one small room for the ethical sessions, that took place during two coffee breaks, giving people a more convivial space where questions and exchanges were facilitated. For all the sessions simultaneous translations in English and French were provided. Thanks to the lunch time and the cocktail time that were organized on Friday, we had some good occasions to meet people that work in the domain, as well as the speakers that more interested us. The apartments were comfortable and near to the conference center. And of course the location was simply perfect, the auditorium was just in front of the sea, and Monaco is a nice and peaceful city.
In conclusion, I appreciated all the aspects of this meeting. For me it has been a perfect occasion to learn a lot of things about the stem cell field that will be useful for my thesis. Talking with people from different areas of interest (from stem cells to iPS cells to bioethics) contributed to enlarge my view about my job and I hope that some new collaborations will start from here for my future career.
Report by Sara Ortica
PhD student
Institut universitaire d'Hématologie
Hôpital Saint-Louis
1, Avenue Claude Vellefaux
75475 Paris Cedex 10
|
Residential Course on Organisational, Technical and Clinical Aspects of Cord Blood Banking
Pescara, Italy November 11-15th, 2009.
|
The European School of Transfusion Medicine, chaired by Dr Umberto Rossi, in cooperation with Netcord, Eurocord, the National Blood Center and the Teaching Hospital in Pescara, Italy, organized an EHA-CME accredited course on cord blood banking, during the second week of November 2009 under the local coordination of Drs Antonio Iacone and Tiziana Bonfini, who contributed to the development of the program with Drs Joan Garcia and Peter Wernet.
The residential course, which was attended by 112 delegates from 32 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania, included 6 sessions covering cord blood donation, characterization, banking, selection and distribution to clinical transplant centers. Both technical and organizational issues were thoroughly discussed in 41 presentations given by a faculty of 20 well known representatives from the cord blood banking, clinical transplantation and regulatory communities.
The course was opened by Dr Eliane Gluckman, who described current results and future perspectives of cord blood transplantation. The first session included also a comparison of allogeneic (related and unrelated) versus autologous cord blood collection programs and two overviews on international cord blood banking networks and regulations. The second session covered organization and standards and included two activity reports from cord blood banks in the CzechRepublic and in Brazil.
Most of the technical issues were discussed in the sessions held in the central portion of the course, from the development of a specific quality system to the management of equipment and personnel, from the promotion of cord blood donation to donor selection in ethnic minorities, from cord blood unit laboratory tests and maternal donor screening, to HLA typing and donor/recipient compatibility, from donor follow-up to long term cord blood unit storage.
The course ended with sessions devoted to: cord blood selection and transportation procedures; clinical use for hematologic conditions in children and adults - mainly based on the data collected by the Eurocord registry in Paris - and; biomedical potential of cord blood.
Delegates enjoyed the opportunity of the presence of several faculty members during the entire course to discuss additional specific issues of interest during lunch, dinner and coffee, e.g. cost analysis, inventory management, information technology in a friendly and informal environment.
The organizers were encouraged by many participants to consider a second edition of the course in the future so that an updated educational program could be offered to novel cord blood banking programs that are currently being developed in a number of countries.
Webcasts of the entire Pescara course will be available for viewing on www. eurocord-ed.org website.
Professor Paolo Rebulla
Director Milano Cord Blood Bank
Regenerative Medicine Department
35 Via Franceso Sforza
20122 Milan, Italy
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
Joint Symposium on Cord Blood Transplantation- Future Challenges.
London, October 2009
|
A joint symposium on Cord Blood Transplantations was held in London on October 19 & 20 2009 to review recent advancements and future projects in the field of cord blood banking, immunology and transplantation. The symposium was a collaboration between The Anthony Nolan Trust (ANT), The NHS Blood and Transplant and the British Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, with support from the Department of Health. The symposium was very well attended reflecting the substantial increase in cord blood usage in UK, increasing by 10-20% in the last few years.
Professor Eliane Gluckman, who performed the first cord blood transplantation, talked us through the history of cord blood transplantation up to her latest project Eurocord-ed, a web based portal for access to cord blood information.
Dr Claudio Brunstein and Dr Guillermo Sanz presented different perspectives on Cord Blood Transplant, from the US where transplantation using two units is being consolidated and from Spain where much attention is focused on single Cord Blood Transplant and consequently progenitor cell dosage becomes the most important parameter predicting outcomes.
In the morning session, aspects related to basic research using multipotent stem cells from cord blood and cell therapy where presented. Interestingly, many venues of translational research are envisaged to augment the cord blood usage either in haematopoietic transplantation but also in non-haematopoietic applications.
Professor Alejandro Madrigal highlighted the need for 50,000 good quality units (more than 9 x108 nucleated cells and 3 x106 viable CD34+ cells) in order to provide a cost-effective cord blood programme for the UK, in which 80% of patients could be provided with a cord unit with a low level of mismatch (5/6 or 6/6 HLA matches).
Drs Derwood Pamphilon from the NHS cord blood bank and Sergio Querol from the Anthony Nolan cord blood bank considered the challenges associated with setting up a national cord blood bank programme, and discussed the two public cord blood bank strategies currently developed in England to achieve the national target.
Professor Pablo Rubinstein, who pioneered the international cord blood banking system, discussed how the direction of HLA mismatch can affect a cord blood transplant outcome. Professor Rubinstein explained that cord blood units with a mismatch in the GVHD direction had outcomes similar to those of fully matched grafts whereas transplants with a rejection direction mismatch were associated with poor engraftment and an increase risk of relapse. Remarkably, Prof van Rood communicated his findings on the positive effect of matching cord blood NIMAs with the recipient in terms of engraftment, and overall survival.
In total there were 20 speakers who all gave enjoyable talks making this first symposium a successful and thought provoking experience for all.
Communicated by Laura Fry, Susana S Gomez and Sergio Querol
|
Highlights on the new edition of the NETCORD-FACT standards
|
The Fourth Edition of the NetCord-FACT International Standards for Cord Blood Collection, Processing, Testing, Banking, Selection, and Release is a collaborative effort between NetCord and the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). The major objective of these Standards is to promote quality medical and laboratory practices throughout all phases of cord blood banking to achieve consistent production of high quality placental and umbilical cord blood units for transplantation.
These Standards cover:
- collection of cord blood cells, regardless of the methodology or site of collection;
- screening, testing, and eligibility determination of the maternal and infant donor according to Applicable Law;
- all phases of processing and storage, including quarantine, testing, and characterization of the unit;
- making the CB unit available for transplantation, either directly or through listing with a search registry;
- the search process for selection of specific cord blood units; and
- transport or shipment of cord blood units, whether fresh or cryopreserved.
Standards for the transplantation of cord blood cells, either allogeneic or autologous, are covered in the Clinical Section of the FACT-JACIE International Standards for Cellular Product Collection, Processing, and Administration.
The new 4th edition of the Standards will be published on January 1, 2010, along with the accompanying Accreditation Manual, Inspection Checklist, Document Checklist, Crosswalks between the 3rd and 4th editions, and Inspector Test. These will be available on the FACT website. The Standards and Accreditation Manual can be downloaded for free or a printed copy of each can be purchased.
The Standards will be effective on March 31, 2010. At that time, all Cord Blood Banks must be in compliance with the 4th edition. For Cord Blood Banks who are currently in the accreditation process, the third edition Inspection Checklist will be accepted until December 31, 2009, and third edition inspections will be scheduled until March 30, 2010. If a bank does not meet either of those dates, it will have to submit documentation and be inspected according to the fourth edition. If a bank wishes to submit documentation and be inspected under the fourth edition before March 31, 2010, this is acceptable.
Ms Kara Wacker, Manager, Standards Development & Training from FACT, provide us with a document that briefly describes the significant changes to the Standards. This document is not all-inclusive; however, it includes many of the major changes. This document can be accessed on the Eurocord-ed website.
Having achieved the goal of providing a large number of stored units worldwide, future cord blood banking will focus on qualitative aspects and this new set of standards certainly responds to current requirements and will ensure improved cord blood transplantation by providing the right guidelines to produce reliable units for any patient in need.
Communicated by:
Dr Sergio Querol
Director Banc de Sang I Teixits
119-121 Pg Vall d'Hebron
08035 Barcelona, Spain
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
|
