NYBC Presents Second Milstein Cord Blood Symposium to Mark FDA Approval of HEMACORD™

Howard P. Milstein National Cord Blood Center

New York Blood Center (NYBC) is presenting the Second Milstein Cord Blood Symposium on Tuesday, April 10, at the NYBC’s Murray Sargent Auditorium. The Symposium will mark the FDA’s approval of HEMACORD^™, a cell therapy product that was developed and is manufactured by the Milstein National Cord Blood Center. HEMACORD^™ is the first FDA-licensed stem cell product, and will be used to treat disorders of the hematopoietic, or blood-forming, system, such as blood cancers and inherited metabolic and immune system disorders.

The symposium will be hosted by NYBC President and CEO Christopher Hillyer, M.D., and NYBC Vice President Pablo Rubinstein, M.D., Program Director of NYBC’s National Cord Blood Bank Program In 1989, Dr. Rubinstein presented the original concept of public cord blood banking to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. In 1992, he founded the world’s first public cord blood program at New York Blood Center, which is still the single largest repository of cord blood units in the world.

Speaking at the Symposium will be Hal E. Broxmeyer, Ph.D. (Indiana University); Paul S. Frenette, M.D. (Albert Einstein College of Medicine); Alejandro Madrigal, M.D., Ph.D. (Anthony Nolan Research Institute); Andromachi Scaradavou, M.D. (National Cord Blood Program); Elizabeth J. Shpall, M.D. (M.D. Anderson Cancer Center); Marcel van den Brink, M.D., Ph.D. (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center); Jon J. van Rood, M.D., Ph.D. (Leiden University); and John E. Wagner, M.D. (University of Minnesota), among the leading physicians and scientists who specialize in cord blood banking. More than 200 scientists, doctors, and professionals in the medical community are expected to attend.