Sydney Cord Blood Bank
The Sydney Cord Blood Bank was established in 1995 and is a member of AusCord, a national cooperative network consisting of three cord blood banks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
The Sydney Cord Blood Bank is responsible for the collection, processing, testing, storage and release of cord blood to be used for patients needing a cord blood transplant.
The core activity of the Sydney Cord Blood Bank is the production of high quality, safe and efficacious cord blood units to be released for transplantation which meet national targets set by the Commonwealth for both indigenous and non-indigenous donations.
In addition, the Sydney Cord Blood Bank undertakes and collaborates on numerous research studies evaluating new strategies and therapies for cord blood banking and transplantation.
The Sydney Cord Blood Bank is managed by a Director, responsible to the Kids Cancer Centre Director, and through them to the Executive Director of the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network. The SCBB reports to the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry, Jurisdictional Haematopoeitic Progenitor Cell Committee, AusCord (the National Cord Blood Collection Network), and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network.
The Sydney Cord Blood Bank activities are carried out within a Quality System compliant with the Australian Code of Good Manufacturing Practice being licensed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and accredited by the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT).
The Sydney Cord Blood Bank is located at the Sydney Children’s Hospital, Sydney and includes offices, processing facility, cryo-storage, testing and research and development laboratories.
The Sydney Cord Blood Bank operates five cord blood collection centres, four located in the Sydney metropolitan area and one located in Royal Darwin Hospital maternity unit. The Sydney Cord Blood Bank employs dedicated staff to coordinate donor recruitment and cord blood collection at these centres.
Cord Blood Bank Collection Centres
The Sydney Cord Blood Bank has collection centres at the following maternity hospitals:
To date, the Sydney Cord Blood Bank has collected almost 30,000 cord blood units and released over 597 cord blood units for life-saving transplants. In the laboratory, life-saving cord blood is processed and stored to be used by anonymous patients around the world who need a stem cell transplant. Watch this video to learn more about the process of storing one unit collected by our bank that will be used to save lives - https://www.instagram.com/sydneykids_/
The Sydney Cord Blood Bank is funded for cord blood banking activities by national and state governments, however, relies heavily on additional funding to purchase innovative equipment, increase facility space available to store collected cord blood, conduct research studies and maintain various support services.
The Australian Cord Blood Foundation is the principal fund raising body for the additional funding needs of the Sydney Cord Blood Bank.
Visit the Sydney Cord Blood Bank website for further information.
