The buzzword today in the field of medicine and health is umbilical cord storage or umbilical cord blood banking. Several companies are engaged in umbilical cord blood banking and storage for later use on the child or collected as donation for use by some other person who needs stem cell transplants. This is a field with tremendous growth prospects, ushering in a new era of health.
The National Center for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM), the Cleveland Clinic and the Cleveland Cord Blood Center have all together entered into an alliance with Image IQ Inc for development of image acquisition and analysis software. This is part of the Biomedical Technology and Innovation project funded by Ohio Third Frontier Program. Image IQ will customize the software in collaboration with researchers at the Cleveland Clinic. The customization is aimed at extracting specific performance measurements of stem cells obtained through umbilical cord blood collection. Using this one can decide whether to bank and preserve cord blood for future use or discard it.
Image IQ’s main line of operations is imaging analytics, visualization services, software engineering, with pharmaceutical, medical device and research organizations being its main clients. It has considerable expertise in cell biology and image analysis to be able to develop automated image analysis software sought by the three and it will be deployed first at the Cleveland Cord Blood Center. By analyzing the umbilical cord blood stem cells, scientists can decide whether it is fit enough for future therapeutic use.
Cleveland has plenty of experienced specialists in stem cell technology and therapy while ImageIQ has the depth of technical competence in custom imaging and analysis to provide an impetus to further research and growth in this sector of umbilical cord blood banking and stem cells. ImageIQ has already spent 10 years with the Cleveland Clinic, as its Biomedical Imaging and Analysis Core.
With huge research and funding in this segment, research in umbilical cord blood banking and umbilical cord blood stem cells will grow exponentially in this decade, necessitating qualitative and quantitative assessment prior to banking to keep costs low and ensure the cells are usable when needed.
ImageIQ is an Imaging Contract Research Organization (ICRO) combining highest levels of skills in software and biomedical engineering for quantitative visual design in research. Clinical Tissue Engineering Center at Cleveland Clinic is a collaborative partnership between Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio Supercomputer Center, University of Cincinnati, Akron General Medical Center, NEOUCOM, and The University of Akron in addition to numerous partners, founded with $4 million awarded under Ohio’s Ohio's Biomedical Research and Commercialization Partnership Program from the Third Frontier Project. They examine ways to implement outcomes of research for therapeutic use. The Cleveland Cord Blood Center has a cord blood bank for stem cells in transplants and research applications. Its purpose is to serve the population, providing help in assisting patients with matched stem cells for treatments through developing donor pools.
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