The Singapore Cord Blood Bank ( Abbreviation: SCBB) is

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

's only public cord blood bank that collects, processes and stores donated umbilical cord blood for use in stem cell transplants. Its cord blood units may be searched for use by qualifying transplant centers around the world.

Public Cord Blood Banking

As a public cord blood bank, SCBB does not charge cord blood donors for its services. However, as the cord blood is donated altruistically, the donor relinquishes any claims to it after donation. This contrasts with a private cord blood bank where parents pay a fee for the cord blood banking services, but retain ownership over the use of their cord blood.

Cord blood and its uses

Cord blood Cord blood (umbilical cord blood) is blood that remains in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord after childbirth. Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells, which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders s ...

is the blood that circulates through the

umbilical cord In placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or ''funiculus umbilicalis'') is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologi ...

from the foetus to the placenta. After delivery, the placenta is almost always thrown away. Yet this humble umbilical cord has become a life saving and precious commodity, because cord blood is rich in blood

stem cells In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of ...

. Blood stem cells are young or immature cells that can transform into other forms of essential blood cell types (

pluripotent Pluripotency: These are the cells that can generate into any of the three Germ layers which imply Endodermal, Mesodermal, and Ectodermal cells except tissues like the placenta. According to Latin terms, Pluripotentia means the ability for many thin ...

), such as red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. The use of blood stem cells has emerged as a potentially curative option for the treatment of several diseases, including blood cancers (such as

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

and

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...

), and severe

anaemia Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, t ...

(such as

myelodysplastic syndrome A myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is one of a group of cancers in which immature blood cells in the bone marrow do not mature, and as a result, do not develop into healthy blood cells. Early on, no symptoms typically are seen. Later, symptoms may ...

thalassemia major Beta thalassemias (β thalassemias) are a group of inherited blood disorders. They are forms of thalassemia caused by reduced or absent synthesis of the beta chains of hemoglobin that result in variable outcomes ranging from severe anemia to cl ...

and severe

aplastic anaemia Aplastic anemia is a cancer in which the body fails to make blood cells in sufficient numbers. Blood cells are produced in the bone marrow by stem cells that reside there. Aplastic anemia causes a deficiency of all blood cell types: red blood c ...

). What type of disease can be treated by cord blood stem cell? A new horizon has opened up in modern medical science. Although stem cells are collected from this cord blood and used to achieve significant success in the treatment of many deadly diseases, its use is increasing in developing countries. For example in the United States more than 10,000 people are treated each year for serious illnesses. 1. Leukemia’s: such as Acute Myelogenous Leukemia 2. Lymphomas: non hodking's Lymphoma, Lymph proliferative disease 3. Bone marrow disease: like Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria 4. Sickle Cell Anemia’s, 5. Thalassemia 6.Immune Deficiencies disease 7. Metabolic problem 8.Blood cell disorders 9.Histocytosis problem… etc.Besides, scientists are making every effort and testing whether this cord blood can be used to treat other diseases. For example - Diabetes, Brain injuries etc disease.

History

Officially opened on 28 September 2005 by Health Minister Mr.

Khaw Boon Wan Khaw Boon Wan (; born 8 December 1952) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Minister for Transport between 2015 and 2020, Minister for National Development between 2011 and 2015, and Minister for Health between 2003 and 2011. A mem ...

, Singapore Cord Blood Bank was established in response to demands from Haematologists and Paediatricians in Singapore. Singaporean patients who needed stem cell transplants were then facing difficulties in obtaining

Human Leukocyte Antigen The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system or complex is a complex of genes on chromosome 6 in humans which encode cell-surface proteins responsible for the regulation of the immune system. The HLA system is also known as the human version of th ...

(HLA) matched stem cell units because of the relative scarcity of stem cell donors that matched Singapore's main ethnic profiles i.e. Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicities. SCBB was conceived as a solution to this problem. Donation of cord blood by Singaporeans would significantly increase the probability of obtaining matched cord blood units for the treatment of Singaporean patients. Having joined the WMDA and NMDP network in 2006 and 2007 respectively, SCBB allows patients of Asian descent all over the world to search SCBB's inventory for a matching cord blood unit as well.

Mission

The expressed mission of the SCBB is to provide placental cord blood units of high safety and quality, through the practice of internationally accredited techniques of collection, processing, banking and disposition, in order to support cord blood transplantations and related research in Singapore and around the world.

Corporate Governance

SCBB is registered in Singapore as a company limited by guarantee. It has a not-for-profit charter and is governed by a non-executive board of directors. Chaired by ''Prof Tan Ser Kiat'' the board's members include ''Mr Gregory Vijayendran, Mr Markham Shaw, Dr Chong Tsung Wen, Dr Mary Rauff and A/Prof Allen Yeoh''.

Management

Chief Executive Officer, ''Mrs Tan-Huang Shuo Mei'', leads the management team of SCBB, having taken over the reins from ''Mr Steven J Sobak'' in July 2015. ''Mr Sobak'' helmed as SCBB's CEO from 2007 to 2015, and ''Dr Fidah Alsagoff'' was SCBB's founding Executive Director from inception to early 2007. The Medical Director is ''Dr William Hwang'' and the Senior Manager-Operations who takes care of the daily operations is ''Mr Arun Prasath''.

Location

The laboratory and cryo-storage area of SCBB is located at Basement 1 of the

KK Women's and Children's Hospital KK Women's and Children's Hospital ( abbreviation: KKH) is the largest public hospital specialising in healthcare for women and children in Singapore, located at 100 Bukit Timah Road. From its humble beginnings as a small general hospital in ...

. SCBB has an administrative office at Novena Specialist Centre.

Collection Centres

SCBB currently collects cord blood from three public hospitals, namely

National University Hospital The National University Hospital (NUH) is a tertiary referral hospital and academic medical centre in Singapore, located in Kent Ridge. It is a 1,160-bed tertiary hospital serving more than 670,000 outpatients and 49,000 inpatients and serves ...

and

Singapore General Hospital Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is an academic health science centre and tertiary referral hospital in Singapore. It is located next to the Bukit Merah and Chinatown districts of the Central Region, close to the Outram Community Hospital (OC ...

, as well as all 7 of the private obstetric hospitals in Singapore,

Gleneagles Hospital Gleneagles Hospital is a private hospital on Napier Road, Singapore next to Napier MRT station. It provides medical and surgical services. It is part of Parkway Pantai, itself a subsidiary of the Malaysian–Singaporean private healthcare group ...

Mount Alvernia Hospital Mount Alvernia Hospital is a 319-bed general acute care hospital with tertiary medical capabilities and two multi-disciplinary medical specialist centres in Thomson Road, Singapore. It is the only not-for-profit, private Catholic missionary ho ...

Mount Elizabeth Hospital Mount Elizabeth Hospital, known colloquially as Mount E, is a 345-bed private hospital in Singapore operated by Parkway Health. Construction began in 1976 and the hospital officially opened on 8 December 1979. The hospital specialises in cardi ...

, Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital,

Parkway East Hospital Parkway East Hospital is a 143-bed private healthcare facility located at the junction of Joo Chiat Place and Telok Kurau Road in the East of Singapore. It was formerly known as East Shore Hospital or East Shore Medical Centre, The American Hospi ...

, Raffles Hospital and Thomson Medical Centre.

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control 2005 establishments in Singapore Cord blood bank Hospitals established in 2005 Blood banks