Wednesday, November 30 2005 17:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Chennai-based cord blood bank, Asia Cryo-Cell plans to expand its network of marketing and collection centres to 24 cities, including six overseas like Dubai, Colombo and Kaula Lumpur, within two years, senior company executives said today (Nov 30, 2005).

Currently, it has such centres in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Ludhiana, Allahabad and New Delhi.

Cryo-Cell offers umbilical cord stem cell banking through brandname LifeCell, which has a license agreement and knowledge-sharing tie-up with Cryo-Cell International (CCI), America's number one cord blood bank.

CCI has allowed Asia cryo-cell to expand into the Asian region on its behalf, said Asia cryo-cell CEO S Abhaya Kumar and Vice-President-Marketing, Prasad Mangipudi, who added that there are also plans to open stem cell processing and banking facilities at two locations overseas.

Mangipudi said Life Cell has enrolled 1,000 expectant parents for banking the cord blood stem cells, at their facility in Chennai, in their first year of operations.

He said LifeCell is in talks with a leading medical college and hospital in Chennai for setting up India's first exclusive stem cell transplantation centre.

According to Asia CRYO-CELL officials, cord blood, which is discarded after childbirth, is a rich source of stem cells, which can be harvested and cryo preserved to be used for treating more than 75 serious ailments.