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By Rick DelVecchio
Catholic San Francisco
The Joanne Pang Foundation is leading a $2.5 million
fund-raising campaign to create the Northern California Umbilical Cord
Blood Bank. The public, non-profit bank would store umbilical cord stem
cells, a rich source of bone marrow stem cells.
Umbilical cells are a non-invasive alternative to bone marrow transplants
in treating bone marrow disorders, including genetic diseases and leukemia,
and in helping patients recover from radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
The therapy is approved by the Catholic Church, which opposes the use
of human embryonic stem cells because it involves the destruction of a
human embryo.
The Pang Foundation was begun in memory of Joanne Pang, a fourth-grader
at St. Cecilia School in San Francisco when she died of leukemia in 2003.
Cord blood might have been used in her therapy if it had been available
locally at the time.
Last month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB 962, a bill requiring
the state Department of Public Health to provide umbilical cord blood
samples to the Birth Defect Monitoring Project for storage and research.
The bill also requires the state to inform pregnant women about options
for donating umbilical cord blood.
“There’s an inadequate supply of cord blood bank stem cells
today so we clearly need a more diverse array of stem cells for therapy
and transplantation,” said Scott Hildula, president of the Pang
Foundation.
Nearly 20 percent of children born in California are delivered in Northern
California. The ethnic diversity of the region means a Northern California
Umbilical Cord Blood Bank would have a broad genetic mix.
To reach the Pang Foundation, e-mail joanne.foundation@pacbell.net
or send mail to:
Joanne Pang Foundation
P.O. Box 320636
San Francisco, CA 94132
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