Group offers hope for thousands patients

China Stem Cell Group, headquartered in Jiading District, has brought hope to over 5,000 patients in China with blood diseases.

Umbilical cord blood from Shanghai was slowly infused into a child suffering from leukemia in Wuhan Children’s Hospital on February 7.

After learning that the child was in urgent need of umbilical cord blood, China Stem Cell Group cooperated with Shanghai Umbilical Cord Blood Bank, sending a medical team to Wuhan, the then epicenter of novel coronavirus in China.

Umbilical cord blood stored at minus 196 degrees Celsius was brought to human body temperature and, an hour later, injected into the child.

“Stem cells are generally stored in our group, especially hematopoietic cord blood stem cells, “said Bai Jing, vice president of the group.

China Stem Cell Group has built a stem cell public resource bank which can realize a 100 percent success in stem cell matching for Chinese patients.

The group has cooperated with 117 top-grade hospitals in China, and the five-year survival rate of patients after transplants has reached 60.1 percent, exceeding the international advanced level.

An 18-year-old boy suffering from aplastic anemia received an umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell transplant thanks to the efforts of the stem cell group and the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University. The case marked the successful completion of 5,000 cases of clinical transplantation of stem cells.

China’s only stem cell hospital, Hainan Bo’ao Stem Cell Hospital affiliated to the group, was completed in April 2018.The hospital plans to set up 100 wards and the first domestic stem cell academician workstation, which can complete more than 1,000 stem cell transplants a year.

“Jiading is where our group locates. From scientific research projects to talent introduction, governments at all levels in the district have given strong support to us,” said Bai. “With their help, our group has greatly accelerated the speed of the business development and offered necessary support to build the largest public stem cell resource bank in China.