SYRACUSE — St. Joseph’s Health Hospital says it is now giving expectant mothers the chance to voluntarily donate their baby’s umbilical cord blood to the Upstate Cord Blood Bank at Upstate Medical University. 

The new partnership will potentially increase cord-blood donations that will be available for public use, St. Joseph’s Health said in a release.

“We are pleased to be able to now offer our cord blood collection services to the parents delivering at St. Joseph’s [Health] Hospital,” Dr. Matthew Elkins, medical director of the Upstate cord blood bank, said. “Through their generous donations of their child’s cord blood, they are helping others in need, either through transplantation or further medical research.” 

Cord-blood donation is “completely safe” for mother and baby; labor and delivery “is not affected,” the hospital contended. No blood is taken from a newborn; it is only removed from the umbilical cord after birth. The designation of Upstate’s cord-blood bank as a public blood bank is “important in that there is no cost to donate and donated cord blood is available to anyone who needs it,” St. Joseph’s Health added.

Once donated, the cord blood will be stored in the bank and made available to transplant centers in the United States and throughout the world for patients in need. The cord-blood units will be listed on national and international registries in order to be matched to the patients who need them. Any units collected that are not suitable for transplantation will be made available to researchers, both at Upstate Medical University and around the country.

How it works

Deciding whether to donate cord blood is “best done” during the pregnancy, per the release. 

Each obstetrics practice will provide expectant mothers with educational materials about cord-blood donation and the forms required to donate. The expectant parents complete the forms at home and submit them directly to the cord-blood bank. Once reviewed, the bank will notify St. Joseph’s labor and delivery unit, which alerts the provider of the mother’s intention to donate. Once the blood is removed from the umbilical cord, the donation is then packaged and transported to Upstate’s 20,000-square-foot facility that features a processing laboratory and cryogenic storage containers.

The Upstate Cord Blood Bank operates under “strict” guidelines and protocols, established by state and federal health organizations, including the New York State Department of Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, Maryland–based AABB Center for Cellular Therapies, and the Omaha, Nebraska–based Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy.

SYRACUSE — Upstate Medical University is involved in a clinical trial evaluating the “safety and performance” of a potential vaccine against COVID-19, and the medical school is seeking participants for the trial. 

Upstate is part of a national multi-center study to assess the efficacy of a vaccine from global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE). No vaccines are currently available to prevent COVID-19, which has spread around the globe, but a number of them are under development and in clinical trials. The World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic in March. 

The efficacy study is a “randomized, placebo-controlled, observer-blind study,” meaning some individuals in the study will receive a placebo and others a vaccine candidate. The majority of the study team will have no knowledge of which individuals are receiving the placebo or vaccine candidate, Upstate Medical said in a news release.

Dr. Stephen Thomas, chief of Upstate’s infectious disease division, said the decision to participate in such a trial is a “personal one,” but it has the “potential to benefit humanity.” 

“Individuals who volunteer for this study will help advance our understanding of whether this vaccine has the potential to protect people and work toward ending the pandemic,” Thomas said.

Study visits will take place in the Clinical Research Unit of the Institute for Human Performance on the Upstate campus.

Individuals interested in participating in the study can call (315) 464-9869 or email trials@upstate.edu for more information.

Eligibility and participation

To be eligible for the study, individuals must be in good health and between the ages of 18 to 85 and be able to make a two-year commitment to the study. Volunteers will be required to provide blood samples up to two years after receiving the vaccine/placebo. Individuals might be seen up to 10 times during the two-year study period. The two-year time frame for the study is “important to assess the safety and long-term immune response.” 

Participants will be compensated and will not incur any expenses for their involvement in the study, Upstate said. People who have previously tested positive for COVID-19 are not eligible to participate in the study, the medical school added. 

During their first two study visits, participants will receive the study vaccine or placebo injection. Researchers will also collect nasal swabs to test for COVID-19 during these times. During the other study visits to follow, researchers will take blood samples.

For seven days after receiving the placebo/study vaccine, participants will be required to complete a daily e-diary (smart-phone application) recording any specific reactions.