Head Freezing Will Be Available Within A Decade

Having your head frozen for potential future resuscitation is a service that will be on offer to the public within 5-10 years, according to the UK’s stem cell bank.

Famously something Walt Disney did, having your head frozen when you die is thought to be a way of preserving enough of your personality, intellect and memories to be able to bring you fully back to life at some point in the future when technology is more advanced.

But this service has previously been within the reach of only the very rich, such as Disney, while less affluent people have missed the opportunity to do this when they die.

And now, say StemProtect.co.uk, we are looking at a near future in which the service is available to everyone – for a small cost of course.

Mark Hall spokesperson for StemProtect.co.uk said: “We’re accustomed to making jokes about freezing heads when we die, and of course everyone knows Walt Disney did it – often that’s their only point of reference. But soon we could see this practice becoming commonplace because advances in technology have made it much more affordable.”

“And of course, while we’re not at the point yet where we can bring someone back to life from this procedure, we believe it’s just around the corner.”

StemProtect.co.uk agree that this does raise some weighty ethical questions, however: “We don’t yet know what the emotional impact would be of bringing someone back to life this way even when we are physically able to do it. That’s not a question for science but for us as human beings, and it’s a question we might not be able to answer until the first person is brought back to life after being frozen.”

The service will be offered at a cost of £5000 for 250 years. Which Mr Hall points out “That’s cheaper than some funerals”

Other ways of preserving vital tissue, such as stem cell banking, are now much more commonplace than ever before, and carry far fewer ethical problems. Unlike freezing a head, which is done to bring a dead individual back to life, the work StemProtect.co.uk do is aimed at preserving information about the body which can be used for medical purposes while the person is still alive.

Public surveys show that people are still not completely happy with the idea of having their heads frozen when they die, even if it does become something that’s affordable to them and realistically within their reach.

Johnny 37, from Leeds, said “ Where do I sign up? Freeze me now and bring me back in a few hundred years please, I take it my bar tab will be cancelled?”

Mr Hibbert, from Yorkshire, said “ Anything to get away from the wife”

Stephen, 45, from Bedford, said: “I don’t even like to think about it. Who would want to be, or know, someone who had been brought back after they died and had their head frozen? I can’t imagine it’s a smooth ride, put it that way.”

And Mary, 75, from Oxford, said: “As a Christian, I don’t think it’s right at all. Once you die, you die, and I’m not scared of that. I’d be more scared of coming back afterwards away from peace and back here where there’s not as much peace.”

What are your thoughts?

Time to ban mobile phones in schools

Education and mental health of our children more important than handheld status symbols.

Children under the age of 16 shouldn’t be allowed to bring mobile phones into school.

That’s the blunt opinion of a national health services company which says they should be left at home if we value the education and mental health of our children.

StemProtect.co.uk – which banks stem cells for families to be used in the future – says that the disadvantages of mobile phones in primary and secondary schools by far outweighs the benefits.

“Yes, the mobile phone enables child and parent to get in contact in emergencies,” says StemProtect.co.uk spokesperson Mark Hall, “but the school office phone did that perfectly well for decades, and also prevents disruption of classes.”

While StemProtect.co.uk stamps down hard on the urban myth that the radiation from mobile devices is bad for children’s physical health, it says it cannot be so sure when it comes to the mental health of younger people.

Data theft causes anguish

“We’ve several concerns,” says Hall, “and the first – obviously – is bullying.”

A mobile phone is a hand-held status symbol that also becomes a hostage once it (or its data) falls into the wrong hands.

“There are endless cases of stolen selfies and messages causing mental anguish for children,” says Hall. “Stolen phones and stolen data open the door for bullying and years of worry.”

Because people tend to overshare on social media, the risk to young people in the school environment increases if a status or ill-considered photo falls into the wrong hands.

The results can be devastating in a school – and not just for the victim and their immediate pool of friends. A scandal spreads like a wave until everybody is disrupted, and the whole school finds itself in a state of chaos.

“Kids are under enough pressure in school as it is,” says Hall, “Problems surrounding misuse of mobile devices adds up to a mental health emergency.”

Bad education

The use of mobile devices in class is also problematic, says StemProtect.co.uk

While it is considered an advantage to have the sum total of human knowledge at your fingertips, it also means that children are exposed to fake news, dangerous and extremist opinions and even inaccurate learning tools.

But it’s the disruption that mobile phones cause – even when banned by school rules – which is the biggest problem that teachers and pupils face.

Teachers report pupils deep in WhatsApp or SMS conversations with people outside the classroom – and even outside the school – when they should be concentrating on learning.

“Just as kids were adept at passing notes under desks, they’re now using technology and finding it much easier,” says Hall.

There are still recorded incidences of children being bullied by text during class, Stem Protect says, and that is entirely unacceptable.

The disruption to the school day through phones usage is greater than ever, and there is only one effective way to stop it.

Time to grab the nettle

Mark Hall: “Schools have agonised for years over allowing mobile phones into school, mainly because they allow parents to be in easy contact with their children.

“But while that ‘Think of the kiddiewinks’ attitude is commendable, it’s also approaching mobile phones from the wrong angle.

“Yes, they are a great communication tool, but they cause endless problems in a closed school environment.”

At a time where teachers find that the huge majority of bullying and child mental health problems are linked to the use of mobile phones in schools, it is time that education authorities grabbed the nettle and banned them entirely.

“Schools police their uniform rules with an iron fist,” says Hall, “It’s time they did the same with phones.”

You can now store your pet’s stem cells

Radical new treatments aren’t just for humans

Stem cell banking will soon be available to pet owners as well as humans, allowing animals to benefit from the latest advances in veterinary medicine.

The UK’s most accredited stem cell storage company, which already processes ten times more stem cell samples than its rivals, is to launch a service that will allow pet owners to store cells from their beloved pets.

According to the UK’s stem cell bank StemProtect.co.uk, collecting stem cells from your pet at a very young age reduces the risk of carrying out risky procedures in later life.

“It is an investment in your animal’s future health,” says StemProtect.co.uk’s Mark Hall.

“It’s heart-breaking to see a beloved pet slow down in later years, usually due a condition that is easily treated in humans,” says Hall.

“But stem cell treatments can give your pet a new lease of life from the pain of osteoarthritis, and early storage increases the chances of success.”

And here’s why StemProtect.co.uk recommends the early storage of your pet’s stem cells

Reducing the risk to elderly pets

Although stem cell therapies have been available for dogs for some time, it is not without its risks.

Current procedures entail putting the animal under a general anaesthetic to harvest the fatty cells from which stem cells are harvested.

These cells are processed and used immediately, and the results are often remarkable.

But as any vet will tell you, a general anaesthetic is tremendously dangerous for older animals, and there is a significant chance they may not survive the procedure.

The older the animal, the greater the risk, and it may already be too late for some pets.

However, collecting stem cells from a much younger animal and storing them is far less risky, and becomes a significant investment in your pet’s future health.

“That’s why we’re launching our Veterinary Stem Cell Bank,” says Hall.

More and more treatments

Stem cells are already being used to treat osteoarthritis, ligament injuries and fractures in pets.

And advances in veterinary medicine mean that the number of available treatments are steadily increasing.

“We’re not going to promise exact cloned doubles of your favourite animal on demand – yet,” says StemProtect.co.uk’s Mark Hall, “but the research is already out there for any number of outcomes which were previously thought unlikely.”

The treatment of tumours and cancers, the replacement of organs (even that lost waggy tail) and previously untreatable diseases – they’re all being researched by skilled scientists who are still discovering the full extent of the powers of stem cells.

With StemProtect.co.uk launching its Veterinary Stem Cell Bank, owners will soon be able to benefit from medicine at the very cutting edge of science.

“Stem cell treatments aren’t just for humans. They’re for your whole family.”

Stem cell cure available for baldness

Press Release

Advances in treatment mean that distressing hair loss could become a thing of the past

Promising advances in stem cell medicine mean that baldness in both men and women could be treatable in the UK within the next few years.

That’s exciting news for the UK’s most accredited stem cell storage company, which says that this is just another step towards the technology’s widespread use across many fields in medicine for the benefit of everybody.

The UK’s stem cell bank StemProtect.co.uk says that while sceptics may see a baldness cure as pandering to the worst of human vanity, it is not viewed that way at all in the research community. In fact, quite the opposite.

“Think about baldness cures and you think about desperate middle-aged men trying to drink from the Fountain of Youth,” says StemProtect.co.uk ‘s Mark Hall, “but it is far more important than that for many patients.”

For some, Male Pattern Baldness is a condition that can have severe effects on the patient’s mental health if it strikes particularly early.

“And as a bald guy myself, it’s not something to take lightly,” says Hall.

But while male vanity is one thing, hair loss due to scarring, alopecia and Female Pattern Hair Loss show the importance of finding effective treatments for baldness which can be distressing to many people.

That’s where stem cell research steps in.

The Treg Factor

A recent discovery has found that when regulatory immune system cells known as “Tregs” are not working correctly, then new hair follicles aren’t grown to replace those dying off through regular hair loss.

That means that stem cells previously thought of as playing a part in our immune system are also key to regenerating hair, and will therefore be the key to treating baldness.

“This is of tremendous hope to sufferers of immune deficiency alopecia, and also to several other types of baldness,” says StemProtect.co.uk’s Mark Hall.

“It’s a huge step in research into hair loss, and relates directly to stem cell medicine.”

The Regeneration Game

But it’s in Japan that giant steps are being taken using stem cell technologies. The Riken company is at the head of one of several rival attempts to bring regenerative medicine to the masses by the end of the decade.

Scientists know that hair follicles and skin are the only human organs that regenerate themselves repeatedly through our lives, and that’s thanks to the stem cells associated with them.

In millions of people, this process goes wrong, and hair loss is the result of the stem cells not regenerating as part of its life cycle.

New stem cell treatments – follicular regenerative medicine – mean that stem cells can be harvested and replicated from a patient, then turned into new hair follicles.

“While it resembles a hair transplant, it’s much more than that,” says Hall, “These are completely new and healthy follicles being planted into the patient’s scalp.

“And these stem cell therapies give important hope to men and women who have lost hair to scarring and alopecia, not to mention Male and Female Pattern Baldness,” he says.

General Public to Reap the Rewards

The great news about stem cell therapies for baldness is that it will be far cheaper than expected.

“People think hair transplants are only for the ultra-rich of this world who have the money to pay for it,” says Hall. “And that’s given people the impression that it’s all about vanity rather than actual clinical need.”

The Japanese treatments mentioned above will cost around 100,000 yen – that’s less than £700 – meaning that the general public will also be able to benefit from these new cures for baldness far sooner than they thought possible.

“And that’s the most important part of this,” says Hall. “Stem cell medicine isn’t for elites, it’s for everybody.

“From treatments against aggressive cancers to a cure for baldness, it’s finally being accepted that stem cell medicine is for everybody.”

99.9% of all play areas, ball pits and toys in pubs and cafes are a hive of germs

How clean is that play area? Ball pits ‘are a hive of germs’ Health concerns for the play industry, not to mention coffee shops and waiting rooms.

You’re kicking back in your local coffee shop, the kids are happy in the children’s play area – but are they actually safe? Yes, they are, but only until you get down to the microscopic level where germs and viruses live.

That’s the major concern of a highly-accredited stem cell storage company which says that play areas and ball pits are hives of germs and filth that could easily make a child ill.

The UK’s Stem cell bank StemProtect.co.uk says that the worst culprits are the ball pits, especially the larger warehouse-based play-barns where a “surprise package” could lie in wait for hours or even days without the staff being aware of the hazard.

StemProtect.co.uk spokesperson Mark Hall says: “I’m a parent of very young children, I’ve watched some of these places with my professional hat on, and what I’ve learned has truly disturbed me.”

Mark has seen – but has also been told by staff members who did not want to be identified – of these potentially hazardous incidents and practices:

Vomit and faeces in ball pits not being cleaned immediately and getting lost in the “churn” of playing children
Parents not reporting incidents involving vomit or faeces in play warehouses because they think they might be banned or charged extra
Young children licking or putting ball pit balls in their mouths
Spilled sticky drinks and food in ball pits and on toys
Toys in communal play areas at coffee shops, cafes and waiting rooms not being cleaned for weeks
Filthy-looking toys in doctors’ surgery and dentists’ waiting rooms going straight into the mouths of toddlers

“You take your kids to these ball pit play warehouses to have fun,” says Hall, “But I’ve seen kids emerge with their legs covered in poo.

“And the worst thing was that it wasn’t even their own. There was a nasty surprise package left at the end of one of the big slides by a previous customer, and all of a sudden it’s everywhere.”

That’s an issue confirmed by staff members at one warehouse play area in the south of England, who all spoke on condition of anonymity:

“We’re forever dealing with little ones spewing and pooing, but there’s only so much you can do. We get the worst of it out, but proper deep cleans are few and far between.”
“Actually, spilled drinks like cola and juice are the worst, because nobody ever reports that kind of incident, and everything ends up sticky.”
The reason for the lack of thorough cleaning is simple:

“We’d have to close of huge areas of the warehouse if we did that. And hiring out to adult laser games and parties in the evenings makes that a tough ask.”
“We do our best day-to-day, but it’s like trying to stamp out a grass fire. Clear up one spilled drink and a soggy nappy comes off in the baby ball-pit. Nightmare.”
StemProtect.co.uk’s Hall says that the problem isn’t concerned to larger warehouse play parks, but to any business or organisation while makes play facilities available.

“One of our local coffee shops closed recently, and their play area for the kiddies was just terrible,” he says. “I wouldn’t let my kids play there – the toys went hand-to-mouth and everything looked tired, tacky and dirty.

“Sadly, that’s the same story wherever you go, even in doctors’ surgeries.”

Even when toys and games are cleaned daily, there’s still the very real risk of infection being passed between children, Stem Protect says.

StemProtect.co.uk is in the business of protecting the health of children, so it’s shocking to see grubby toys in surgeries where the young ones are at their most vulnerable.

“Those bead puzzle tables are very popular in waiting rooms as they can keep a toddler quiet for a long time,” says Hall, “But how many kids have touched those beads today? How many have been in mouths today?

“It’s all very well cleaning them first thing in the morning, but that’s only good until the first contract with bodily liquids.”

That’s the same for any piece of play equipment, from huge warehouse down to a doll at the dentist’s, Stem Protect says.

“We’re not trying to put parents off these places,” Hall says, “But a packet of wet wipes in your bag goes a long way toward peace of mind”

I wish I hadn’t sworn so much during pregnancy. What if I get an angry baby?

Mums confess their greatest regrets while they were pregnant

From spending far too much of a pushchair that’s also a car seat and a crib, to swearing too much in front of their as-yet unborn child, Britain’s mums have listed their top regrets while they were pregnant.

In fact, it seems that the nine months that should be filled with hope and joy are filled with worry and batting away unwanted advice, says a company which banks stem cells from new-borns for future use.

According to the UKs family stem cell bank StemProtect.co.uk, mums’ regrets range from the good old-fashioned bizarre cravings, all the way up to being drawn in and bamboozled by new technology that promises to make their lives better.

“I’m a parent myself,” says StemProtect.co.uk spokesperson Mark Hall, “And I can personally identify with some of these.

“But this is about mums – they’re the ones who’ve had to do all the hard work, had their hormones and bodies assaulted from all angles, and live with the worry that they’re not going to be a textbook mother.”

StemProtect.co.uk spokes to scores of new mothers (2300), and asked them about the things they regret the most about the nine months of pregnancy and the weeks immediately following birth. The most popular answers (in no particular order) were:

Giving in to cravings
Going to pre-natal classes
Taking partner to pre-natal classes
Allowing myself to be photographed while eight months gone
Listening to useless advice from friends and relatives
Buying loads of trendy and ultimately useless gadgets
Spending a small fortune on the nursery
Spending a small fortune on the pushchair
Listening to classical music because it’s supposed to be soothing
Listening to those whale song and pan pipe CDs that you can only buy in tourist attraction gift shops because they’re supposed to be soothing
Smoking
Giving up smoking and choosing ridiculous vape flavours
Drinking
Swearing in front of the foetus
Stem cell banking
The reasons given by some mums throw some light onto their regrets:

Julia: “I wish I hadn’t sworn so much during pregnancy. All the time I thought ‘What if I get an angry baby? What if she can hear me?'”

Paula: “We spent a significant four-figure sum on a pushchair that’s also a car seat and a crib. The only thing that it doesn’t do is change nappies. Total waste of money, we use the stroller we got for a fiver at a car boot sale most of the time.”

Terri: “I wish I hadn’t wasted weeks and weeks going to pre-natal classes. In the end I learned everything I needed from my mum and the internet. Also, taking my hubby to pre-natal classes, that’s a big regret too.”

Kerry: “I’m really pleased that I gave up smoking. Not so pleased that I switched to vaping thinking it was safer. All I did was switch one lot of chemicals for another, and it worries the hell out of me.”

Gita: “So many pan pipe CDs. What was I thinking? The charity shop got them.”

Jill: “Stem cell banking. Sounds horrendously trendy, but I wish we’d done it. Our little one’s healthy, but you never know.”

Joanna: “I had a huge falling out with my partner over my craving – the smell of freshly-laid tarmac. I had her drive me all over the town looking for roadworks, and it drove her up the wall. Why couldn’t it be Marmite?”

StemProtect.co.uk’s Mark Hall: “Some of these regrets seem trivial in retrospect, others are genuine concerns for their past behaviour.

“For example, switching from smoking to vaping is a step into the unknown at the moment, no matter mum is worried sick about it.”

But in the end, as long as baby is healthy and happy in a loving household, that’s all that’s important, and regrets be damned, he says.

“Regrets should be left in the past. Look to your baby’s future.”

Yorkshire-based stem cell company will help protect generations from illness

A Yorkshire businessman has launched a company which will allow people everywhere to benefit from the latest and future advances in cutting-edge medicine.

Ilkley-based Mark Hall, who has been the driving force behind a number of local start-up businesses, is now turning his attention to the world of stem cell medicine which is already delivering remarkable treatments for previously incurable conditions.

His company StemProtect.co.uk is already the world’s most accredited stem cell storage company, and allows people to store harvested stem cells until such a time as they are needed for medical procedures, such as tackling leukaemia.

“As a relatively new father, I’m naturally concerned about the health of my children,” says Hall, “And that got me thinking about the best way to safeguard their futures”.

That’s when Hall found out about stem cell banking, where special cells are harvested from the umbilical cords of new-born babies, screened for diseases and genetic conditions, and banked in one of the country’s most secure stem cell banks.

“Stem cell therapy represents the future, as it offers hope to people when previously there was none. As a field of medicine it’s very exciting, and we’re privileged to be a part of it,” he says.

Already a significant employer in the Ilkley and York areas with over 50 staff, Mark hopes to create even more jobs from this latest enterprise, in sales and support, as well as the technical and IT parts of the business.

“We couldn’t do it without our dedicated team here in Yorkshire,” says Hall, “And once again they’ve done a brilliant job getting us up and running in what is a complex and highly regulated industry. I couldn’t ask for more.”

What is Stem Cell banking?

· Stem cells are found in the umbilical cord and the placenta at birth and are potentially precious to a baby’s future health.

· Stem cells can be used in the treatment of life-changing diseases and conditions such as leukaemia. Therapies for a number of other conditions are currently under development.

· More parents are taking the important step of having these unique cells saved and stored in safe conditions for future use.

· If a parent misses the chance to store umbilical stem cells at birth, they can also be found in a baby’s milk teeth, and even in adult adipose fat.

· Additional postnatal new-born screening allows non-invasive and pain-free testing for early identification of coeliac disease, lactose intolerance and others.

How does it work?

· Stem Protect makes the necessary arrangements for our client’s big day – the birth of their baby – including appointing a phlebotomist (blood specialist) to supervise the collection of blood and tissue samples

· When the baby is born, the client calls the phlebotomist, and arrangements are made for courier pick-up for the samples

· The samples are taken to our secure lab facilities and processed for storage

· Storage is guaranteed for as long as required in secure conditions

Mark Hall says the secret of his success is a simple one: Be the company that offers the most competitive prices in the sector, along with excellent service from loyal and knowledgeable staff.

“We go into this with experts,” he says, “Experts in stem cell storage, experts in business, and experts in customer service.

“Investing in the right people is what counts, and we aim to make Stem Protect yet another Yorkshire success story.”

Stem cell harvesting could be the key to brotherly (and sisterly) love

Parents having babies so they can store stem cells for new arrival and existing siblings

Growing numbers of parents are having babies so that they can store their new arrival’s precious stem cells, not just for baby, but also for existing brothers and sisters.

According to one UK stem cell storage company, it appears that some people are hoping that the cells – which are harvested at birth – might provide a blood match for their children who might have missed the boat for stem cell storage in the past.

Stem cell storage company StemProtect.co.uk says that more and more clients are asking whether their new arrival’s cells would be suitable for siblings should they be required to treat a future illness.

“It’s a question we’re asked most days,” says StemProtect.co.uk spokesperson Mark Hall, “and the straight answer is that it’s not as clear-cut as it might seem, but the positives are getting stronger all the time.”

Here’s how it works:

Stem cells harvested from a newborn baby’s umbilical cord can be deep-frozen and used as treatment for future illnesses.
These cells are a 100% match for baby, so any procedure in which these cells are used on the primary donor stands a far better chance of succeeding.
Stem blood used to treat a sibling stands only a 25% chance of being a blood match. Other factors may also come into play to determine whether a proposed therapy might be successful.
Parents who have “missed the boat” the first time around can be reassured by stem cells present in a child’s milk teeth, which can also be stored. These, however, may be less effective than umbilical cord blood cells
“New parents are coming to us knowing that stem cell storage is a kind of insurance policy for their child’s health,” says Hall.

“They know there are already benefits of storing cell samples, and see the huge amount of research going on to find cures for many diseases and conditions using stem cell regeneration techniques.”

Because stem cell harvesting and storage has always been prohibitively expensive in the past, parents worry that their existing children might be missing out now that prices have brought it into their reach. It’s StemProtect.co.uk’s duty to give them realistic and honest answers to their questions.

The cost of long-term cell storage has tumbled in recent years. That, coupled with the increasing potential of stem cell therapies mean that it has become a good sense option for many expectant families.

Realistic expectations for a significant investment

Typical of StemProtect.co.uk clients are John and Denise (not their real names) who came to us with genuine concerns: “We’ve got a history of one particular genetic disorder in our family, and we wanted to know if stem cells from the baby we’re planning would be of any use for our six-year-old.

“StemProtect.co.uk told us not to get too carried away, but reassured us that there was a small yet significant chance of a match, and – just as importantly – that the service also included screening for abnormalities at both the pre- and post-natal stages.

“That’s important to us, and will be a huge part of this huge decision we’re about to make.”

StemProtect.co.uk’s Mark Hall says it is important for services like theirs not to oversell expectations, but to give prospective clients fair and balanced advice to help them make one of the most significant investments they’ll ever make.

“New stem cell therapies are emerging all the time, and these may take several years to work their way through clinical trial processes to become a strong, peer-reviewed treatment for patients.

“That’s why parents are prepared to store stem cells for their children, because they believe – as we do – that the future may bring important advances in stem cell-based medicine that can benefit not only the primary donor, but siblings too.”

Stem Cell technology, could lead the way to distant planets.

“The first human to walk on Mars may not even be born yet – but that’s an advantage”

The use of stem cell technology could mean the difference between life and death on any attempt to travel beyond the planet Earth to Mars.

That’s the opinion of one of the UK’s leading stem cell storage and diagnostics companies, which says that advanced medical techniques will be required to cope with the rigours of interplanetary space.

UK based stem cell storage company StemProtect.co.uk says that a trip to Mars may only seem “just around the corner” in galactic terms, but it’s highly possible that exposure to radiation along the way could lead to the astronauts developing leukaemia and other cancers even before they arrived. This means that future travellers will have to be ‘immunised’ before they leave Earth.

“There was an article in The Times suggesting that elephants would make ideal Martian travellers because they’d be largely immune to the radiation,” says Stem Protect spokesperson Mark Hall, “But those laughing at the ridiculous-sounding headline completely missed the point – the fact is that scientists are already working on ways of getting humans there and back alive.

“The first human to walk on Mars may not even be born yet – but that’s an advantage when it comes to preparing them for the trip,” he says.

Hall points to recent research which highlights the bad news faced by future space travellers: Radiation in deep space which could increase the risk of leukaemia; while long-term exposure to micro-gravity may leave astronauts open to infection.

The three year round trip to Mars would affect humans at the stem cell level, leaving them with a drastically lowered immune system, NASA-funded scientists say. And NASA’s own findings say that stem cells may be crucial to the future of space travel, particularly how they respond in a low-gravity environment.

Amid all the challenges the research demonstrated, one finding may be key:

“Stem cells flown in space and then cultured back on Earth showed greater ‘stemness’ (the ability to self-renew and generate any cell type), changing more readily upon induction, for instance, into specialized cardiac muscle cell colonies.”

That means space-engineered stem cells come back stronger when re-introduced into the Earth’s gravity, and there may be future applications related to this finding.

These huge challenges mean one thing, says Mark Hall, “And that’s preparing an astronaut for the journey quite literally at the stem cell level.

“That means working with the best and most effective stem cells available to the patient – those harvested from the umbilical cord at birth.”

That means, he says, that it’s likely that the first person to walk on Mars will be ideally selected from the growing group of people whose parents took the step to store their child’s stem cells at birth.

It also means that the therapies required to ‘immunise’ humans to space travel are still being researched. And with most space-based science, this research can only mean huge benefits to mankind back down on Earth when it comes to fighting otherwise deadly conditions and diseases.

But that doesn’t mean the birth of a genetically engineered super human. It means somebody who has been prepared for a dangerous trip through carefully research gene therapy, he says.

“We wince at the thought of genetically engineered humans,” says Hall, “And we’re not going to create a Khan from Star Trek specifically to get to another planet.”

“Getting humans to Mars and beyond will be both expensive and dangerous,” StemProtect.co.uk ‘s Mark Hall says.

“But the scientific by-products – such as huge leaps in stem cell medicine – will benefit humanity for centuries to come.”

A guide to umbilical Cord stem cell storage

For most expectant parents, their baby’s future health and safety is a priority. That’s why umbilical cord blood banking is increasing in popularity. So what does the procedure involve and why should you give it serious consideration?

What is umbilical cord blood banking?

Umbilical cord banking involves removing some of the blood from your baby’s umbilical cord at birth and placing it into a stem cell storage facility at a privately run blood bank.

When it is extracted from the cord, the blood is collected in a bag. The blood contains three main components:

• red blood cells
• plasma
• buffy coat layer

The red blood cells and plasma are effectively waste products. However, the buffy coat layer is a thin layer that falls between the red blood cells and the plasma and it is this that contains the all-important stem cells. The blood and cord samples are collected, bagged and frozen. They are then stored in the blood bank, until such time as they are needed.

What’s special about umbilical cord blood?

Umbilical cord blood is very rich in stem cells, which have the ability to transform into virtually any type of human cell. Two types of stem cells are found in umbilical cord blood:

• haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs)
• mesenchymal stromal stem cells (MSCs)

HSCs are found in the blood that passes through the umbilical cord to your baby, and MSCs are found in the umbilical cord itself. HSCs can be used in the treatment of blood-related diseases, and MSCs could be used for regenerative treatments including the production of bone and cartilage tissue.

This means that if your child ever became sick with certain diseases, such as leukaemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell anaemia, these potentially life-saving cells could be used to effect a treatment or cure. The cells could also be used to treat a sibling or other relative.

It is also believed that stem cells could be used to treat life-altering illnesses such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cerebral palsy, and heart disease.

The benefits of harvesting cord blood

Cord blood and bone marrow both contain the same kind of HSC stem cells, but those harvested from cord blood have a few advantages. Cord blood stem cells are less mature than those taken from an adult’s bone marrow, meaning that they are less likely to be rejected by a recipient’s body.

Removing umbilical cord blood is a simple and painless procedure, unlike bone marrow donation, which can be painful and invasive.

What about your baby’s umbilical cord

As well as storing your baby’s umbilical cord blood stem cells, you may also choose to store some of the cord tissue itself. The cord tissue is a very rich source of MSCs that could potentially be used to regenerate damaged or diseased soft tissues or bone. For example, if your child needed knee replacement surgery in the future, cord tissue stem cells could be used to grow new cartilage or bone.

Although this work is currently still in its infancy, you may want to preserve part of your baby’s umbilical cord for future use, should the need arise.

Why choose to bank your baby’s umbilical cord blood and stem cells?

The field of research into the discovery and use of MSC stem cells is ever expanding. By choosing to have your baby’s cord and blood banked you are taking out a kind of ‘insurance’ against certain serious diseases and medical conditions that could affect your child in its later life. Your baby’s stem cells could also be used to treat his or her siblings, should the need arise.

For more information about the process of blood and stem cell banking and to find out how your child could benefit, contact the experts at Stem Protect today.