The Cellular Therapy Team
Members of this team work at leading institutions in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Key objectives of the team are to survey current practice in the preparation, assessment, storage and distribution of cellular therapy products and to perform detailed laboratory studies in selected areas of interest.
Recent and current studies include:
- Interlaboratory proficiency testing of cord blood stem cell collections
- Intra and interlaboratory proficiency testing of dendritic cell products for immunotherapy protocols
- Assessment of stem cell storage and transportation aiming to define best practice
- Understanding the key release criteria for cellular therapy products
- Standardization of colony forming units and other key parameters for the assessment of hematopoietic stem cells
- Measurement of viability of cellular therapy products
The BEST cellular therapy team works closely with international organizations such as AABB, ISCT and EBMT in surveying current practice and its laboratory-based projects are conducted by expert scientists at leading institutions around the world. The results of all studies are published in leading scientific journals such as Transfusion and Cytotherapy. A list of recent publications is to be found on the website. We are keen to continue to forge new scientific links with researchers in other leading academic organizations and with key manufacturers of products used in the field of cellular therapy. We are committed to expanding our interests further into the fields of immunotherapy and regenerative medicine as these are developed for clinical study and subsequent routine application in specific patient groups. We hope that you share our belief that the horizons of cellular therapy are ever-expanding.
The team leaders for Cell Therapy are David McKenna, MD, University of Minnesota, US and David Stroncek, MD National Institutes of Health, US.