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About CBB

The BMDI Cord Blood Bank is a joint initiative of the Bone Marrow Donor Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and is located at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Victoria. The BMDI Cord Blood Bank is a member of the AusCord network of public cord blood banks.

The banking of umbilical cord blood involves the collection, processing, freezing and storage of umbilical cord blood to provide "ready to use" transplant tissue for patients who are unable to be matched with a suitable bone marrow donor. This is a major project that not only provides a direct service to the clinic, but is also used as a resource for the development of new, advanced cellular therapies.

Having cord blood available in a bank, stored frozen and fully tested, provides a rapid service to patients in need of a stem cell transplant. Clinically, the use of cord blood for transplantation also has the advantage of generating a lower incidence and severity of Graft versus Host Disease allowing a certain degree of mismatch between donor and patient. This dramatically increases the chance of identifying a suitable cord blood unit.

As of December 2007 the BMDI Cord Blood Bank, located at the Royal Children’s Hospital, had banked over 7,600 cord blood units. The tissue typing is listed and available worldwide through the website of Bone Marrow Donors World Wide (BMDW).

In addition, the bank has now supplied more than 160 cord blood units for patients receiving treatment at both Australian and international transplants centres.