Bloody Brilliant
Here's a new biotech growth industry. I just saw an advertisement for a company that will harvest placental blood cells at the birth of your child, and cryo-preserve those cells for your child's future medical needs.
Lessons learned from stem cell research might permit future oncologists to use cultures grown from preserved placental cells instead of seeking a bone marrow donor. Further, as preserved placental cells will exactly match the cells to be replaced - the incidence of tissue rejection will likely diminish.
Is such treatment possible? Is it likely? Who knows. But the research shows much promise (if George Bush does not veto the legislation that will reach his desk this week or next).
If stem-cell research makes good on one tenth of its promise, the harvesting and preservation of placental blood will become the norm (for those who can afford it), there will be a growing need for larger, less expensive, more reliable storage/preservation centers.
It seems like a good risk now, to get in on the ground floor of the technology.
It seems like a good area for legislatures to consider the need of regulation. The operators of such centers need to be financially viable for extended periods of time. A person may not need to rely on the stored cells for 50, 60 or more years, and the operator may be called to recover a sample even as much as 100 years after it was collected.
The reliability over time issue is, to some extent, balanced against the likelihood that as years go by new medical advances will render the usefulness of these particular cells obsolete. However, the value of these cells may be of much greater importance 10 or 20 years from now when the parents of younger children might thank their stars they had the foresight to take advantage of the process.
So the industry will need regulators to ensure reliability, financial accountability, standards for licensing. Also back-up procedures to protect the facilities and cell samples in the event of natural disaster or the failure of the corporate operator (special provisions may be required under the Bankruptcy Code for example)
Lessons learned from stem cell research might permit future oncologists to use cultures grown from preserved placental cells instead of seeking a bone marrow donor. Further, as preserved placental cells will exactly match the cells to be replaced - the incidence of tissue rejection will likely diminish.
Is such treatment possible? Is it likely? Who knows. But the research shows much promise (if George Bush does not veto the legislation that will reach his desk this week or next).
If stem-cell research makes good on one tenth of its promise, the harvesting and preservation of placental blood will become the norm (for those who can afford it), there will be a growing need for larger, less expensive, more reliable storage/preservation centers.
It seems like a good risk now, to get in on the ground floor of the technology.
It seems like a good area for legislatures to consider the need of regulation. The operators of such centers need to be financially viable for extended periods of time. A person may not need to rely on the stored cells for 50, 60 or more years, and the operator may be called to recover a sample even as much as 100 years after it was collected.
The reliability over time issue is, to some extent, balanced against the likelihood that as years go by new medical advances will render the usefulness of these particular cells obsolete. However, the value of these cells may be of much greater importance 10 or 20 years from now when the parents of younger children might thank their stars they had the foresight to take advantage of the process.
So the industry will need regulators to ensure reliability, financial accountability, standards for licensing. Also back-up procedures to protect the facilities and cell samples in the event of natural disaster or the failure of the corporate operator (special provisions may be required under the Bankruptcy Code for example)
posted by BuddhistAttorney | 1:35 AM
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