1. Cord Blood The Hidden Treasure of Life Presented By Asma I. Al-Asad Laboratory Manager Damascus, 2009

2. Dubai Cord Blood & Research Centre (DCRC) Established in 2006 as a turnkey project

3. Dubai Cord Blood & Research Centre (DCRC) Total Cost 17.5 million AED 5.5 m Equipment. 12 m construction. Total Built area 1303 m2 Ground Floor area 777 m2 First Floor area 526 m2

4. Mission To provide high quality HLA-typed units for transplantation to patients in need.

5. Goals of DCRC T o build a Cord-Blood Bank that captures the rich ethnic diversity of the Arab population & the Middle East. T o develop a programme which results in the highest quality units exceeding National and International standards. E ngage with the International Registries to include DCRC units.

6. DCRC Services C ollect, Process, Test and Store Umbilical Cord Blood stem cell to be used for future therapy. P erform the Molecular HLA Typing test for patients in need. P erform a search for possible match for the patients worldwide.

7. Organization Structure DCRC Administrative Service Unit Cord Blood Registry Donor Counseling office Collection Subunit Laboratory Unit Stem Cell LabHLA Lab Flocytometry Lab

8. Total No. of stuff (18) Medical Director : 1 Lab Manager : 1 Registration : 2 Collection & Counseling : 3 Stem Cell Lab : 4 Specialized Lab : 3 Lab Attendance : 2 Cleaner : 2

9. DCRC international Recognition & agreements Nov 2006 : Member of International Cord Blood Society (ICBS). Jan 2007: signed a contract with KSA (Dallah Group) to collect CBU from GCC countries. June 2008: Registered in Netcord Virtual Office. January 2009: Associate member of FACT-NetCord Foundation. March 2009: Opened a collection center that is Orient Stem Cell Center to Collect CBU.

10. Mixed Cord Blood Bank Collection Method In-Utero the placenta is still in Uterus Directed Cord Blood Donation= 1365 CBU Volunteer Cord Blood Donation= 199 CBU

11. Statistics (2006-2008)

12. Total CBU stored 1564

13. 3 Units Transplants _ University of Minnesota Cancer Centre/USA. _ King Hussein Cancer Centre/ Jordan. _ Royal Marsden Hospital/ UK. 47 Units Allocated for patients. Used & Allocated Units

14. Cord-Blood Processing 2006- 2009: Manually April 2009: Automated By Sepax System Method: Volume reduction by depletion. Clean room Temp=14-19˚Celcius Pressure = 25 Pascals Humidity = 45%

15. Processing Criteria Volume of accepted cord blood 40 ml. Nucleated cell count 6.0 x 106 cells ml-1. Viability of cells 90%. Pre-CD34 106 cells ml-1. Recovery rate 60%.

16. Cryopreservation The Final Volume stored= 25ml The CBU is stored in monitored liquid Nitrogen tanks in -196˚C, for ~ 15-20 years. Extremely low temperatures inhibit the cellular activities when a cryo-preservative is used.

17. Cord blood has been successfully used to treat over 70 different diseases to date.

18. Dont Throw it Away…

19. Cord Blood The Hidden Treasure of Life Presented By Asma I. Al-Asad Laboratory Manager Damascus, 2009