LAHORE – Pakistani parents are choosing to bank their child’s stem cells with one of the leading stem cells bank in Europe, Future Health Biobank.
Future Health Biobank (Pakistan) provides parents the opportunity to bank their child’s stem cells at the time of birth from the cord blood which otherwise would go to waste.
What is cord blood banking?
It’s a relatively simple process, where a trained healthcare professional attends your birth and takes the blood from the umbilical cord and a sample of the cord tissue. It’s then sent off to the Future Health Biobank laboratory in the UK where a team of scientists process them before storing them in liquid nitrogen for 25 years or more.
The reason you would do this is simple; there are millions of cells inside this blood and tissue called stem cells. They can be used in treatments for over 85 different diseases. These treatments are already taking place around the world and have been happening for almost 30 years now.
Storing your child’s stem cells at birth could literally save their life one day. You can simply call the cord blood bank, ask them to release the sample and it will be sent to your physician or consultant to use in a transplant. The best thing is that this is a perfect match to the DNA of your child, meaning that their body won’t reject the treatment. Plus, there’s a 1 in 4 chance that their siblings could use it and the parents have a chance, too. Like insurance, this is something nobody wants to have to use. But like insurance, it’s a fantastic safety net to have.
“Banking your child’s stem cells is one of the best possible gifts you can give your newborn child,” stated AI Sheikh, the managing director Future Health Biobank in Pakistan. “We are proud to be providing this service in Pakistan in order to protect the future health of our children.”
All seem a bit sci-fi to you?
The technology is already in place to use these stem cells if you need them. And there are over 85 diseases it is currently being used for as well as more than 300 clinical trials happening at the moment into new treatments and therapies, so a sample stored now could be used for any number of treatments in the future.
“UKSCB was established with one aim in mind, to bring treatments that are not already present in Pakistan” stated EA Baig, Global Managing Director of UKSCB International (UK).
“Future Health Biobank (Pakistan) is our first stem to give parents to opportunity to store their child’s stem cells. We are on path to develop our own treatment centers in Pakistan which will allow for us to provide lifesaving treatments to diseases currently not treated using stem cells in Pakistan.”
He concluded “that is why we brought the biggest brand for stem cells banking to Pakistan, and that is the same strategy we will follow for our treatment centers.”
What illnesses can be treated using stem cells?
There’s a huge list but in short, the blood stem cells treat blood related diseases such as leukaemia, anaemia and thalassemia. The stem cells from the tissue are going to be used for regenerative therapies and will hopefully treat things like autism, brain damage and heart disease, to name a few.
So why are parents choosing to store with Future Health Biobank (Pakistan)?
Future Health Biobank is the UK’s largest stem cells bank, with Human Tissue Authority license, MHRA license and American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) accreditation. It has been providing service to parents around the world since 2002 and has so far stored more than 140,000 samples from across the world.
Future Health Biobank (Pakistan)
Future Health Biobank (Pakistan) is operated by UKSCB Pvt. Ltd, authorised exclusively by Future Health Biobank in the UK for providing stem cells banking.
The UK’s largest and most accredited stem cells bank was established in 2002, with its laboratory based in Nottingham. The bank has stored over 140,000 stem cells samples from 75 countries.
