Thanks to the generosity of Julian Robertson, New Zealand’s first honorary knight, regenerative medicine research has received a major funding boost. The Robertson Foundation has given $10.2 million to Duke University in the USA, to advance the use of cord blood as a therapy.

Dr Joanna Kurtzberg, who was guest presenter at the AusACPDM conference in Christchurch, in March, will use some of the funding to move forward with the first placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trial in children with cerebral palsy. The trial has been specifically designed to answer key questions about the efficacy of cord blood treatments in children with this condition.

Julian Robertson, who is well known for his golf course developments and winery investments in New Zealand,

became a champion of cord blood research when he heard about the amazing progress of New Zealander Maia Friedlander. Oxygen deprived at birth, Maia was successfully treated with her own cord blood, at Duke, in August 2008.

Only two days after Maia’s re-infusion, her balance seemed to have improved, her eyes became more focused and alert, she could run with confidence and she even started talking -things she simply hadn’t done before.”
“It was as if the reinfusion completely unlocked the door on her personality and her physical development,” said Maia’s mum, Julian.

Umbilical cord blood stem cells, normally discarded after birth, have the ability to grow and develop into various types of cells throughout the body. They can be harvested after birth and stored for future transplant in patients with many types of blood disorders, and increasingly, other diseases as well.

Science can’t tell us exactly how reinfusion works – some think that the stem cells in cord blood have a road map to damaged tissue and when they get there they rebuild it. Others think that the stem cells repair blood vessels and flow damage by bringing crucial blood that in turn repairs brain tissue. This emerging field has great promise, and this generous gift will accelerate the pace of Dr. Kurtzberg and other Duke Scientists world-renowned, translational work in cell therapies, said Dr. Victor Dzau, Dukes chancellor for health affairs and chief executive of the Duke University Health System. It is hoped that New Zealanders whose children are eligible for the trial will benefit from this donation. Thanks to Kate Carter from CordBank New Zealand who supplied the facts for this article Ross Flood rflood@cpsociety.org.nz

Jillian & Daniel Friedlander.