Lions Foundation provides support to neonatal cell therapy research
Congratulations to Associate Professor Atul Malhotra and the Newborn Cell Therapies group team who have been generously funded by the Lions Cord Blood Foundation. Over two years, their research will receive $50,000 from the Foundation.
“Very grateful to the Lions Cord Blood Foundation for generously donating funds for our neonatal cell therapy research. This will directly feed into our cell therapies clinical trial pipeline including one study currently recruiting extremely preterm babies to investigate feasibility and safety of autologous cord blood cell therapy,” Associate Professor Malhotra said.
On behalf of The Lions Cord Blood Foundation, Chairman Ron Tregear said it was a great pleasure to announce the support for the CORD-SAFE Study carried out by the Department of Paediatrics at Monash.
“This research is particularly rewarding as it will involve bringing extremely premature babies into the world potentially in better health than they may have otherwise been. It will to some degree complement current research involving the Melbourne Cord Blood Bank which the Foundation has supported for the last 14 years. In the previous period from 1996, the Foundation funded cryogenic tanks for the storage of cord blood units and other equipment,” said Mr Tregear.
Newborn Cell Therapies group which includes staff and facilities at The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics and School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University are leading research and translation on cell therapies for neonatal conditions. The intention is to harness the reparative, anti-inflammatory, and regenerative potential of cell therapies to mitigate neonatal morbidity and improve outcomes of these vulnerable infants. While the clinical trials employing cell therapies are at an early phase (i.e. testing safety and feasibility), based on scientific evidence from preclinical studies, the team is hopeful this will translate to improved outcomes for babies in the future.