Invited Presentation ABNA - Biobanking: Shaping the Future Together

Public cord blood banking in Australia (#49)

Ngaire Elwood 1
  1. Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia

The BMDI Cord Blood Bank (CBB) commenced operations in 1996 and is located at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) / Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne. It is one of three public cord blood banks in Australia and together with the Sydney CBB and Queensland CBB at the Mater form the AusCord network. All three banks are funded by the Commonwealth and state governments, administered via the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR), and hold a GMP cell manufacturing licence from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and international accreditation through the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). The role of the AusCord banks is to recruit cord blood (CB) donors, collect, process, test, cryopreserve, store and release CB for the purpose of haematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) for the treatment of leukaemia and other blood disorders. The BMDI CBB has approximately 13,000 CB units available for search on the international bone marrow donor registry and has released more than 600 CB units for HSCT. The BMDI CBB also plays a key role in providing CB for research, utilizing CB that does not meet the stringent criteria for banking. CB contains different cell types that are proving to be of benefit for new immunotherapies and regenerative medicine. Traditionally, banked CB was only able to be released for indications requiring a HSCT. The BMDI CBB has recently established a formal process for release of CB from the registry for approved clinical trials, allowing participation in clinical trials for neurological and cardiac repair. The AusCord banks continue to be a vital source of stem cells for patients requiring a stem cell transplant and have now entered a new era of providing CB for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs).