Chloe’s Stem Cell Journey
Let There Be Hope
Chloe Kim is Hope Biosciences’ 1st newborn stem cell banker. When Samuel and Olivia Kim approached Hope Bio’s Founder and CEO, Donna Chang, about the possibility of newborn stem cell banking as an option similar to what was being offered for adults, it forced the question as to how to make that a reality. At that time, in the early stages of Hope Bio’s founding, there had not yet been an attempt to bank newborn stem cells. This notion presented both parties with a unique opportunity to pursue newborn stem cell banking as a viable, safe, and effective service.
In the Beginning
Today, newborn banking is an integral part of Hope Bio’s operational efforts and is a cornerstone in the commercial side of the science, but that wasn’t always the case and it all started with Chloe.
In order to make newborn stem cell banking a reality, the first question that Donna needed to answer was how to access the right stem cells from a newborn. With adults, a small sample of fat tissue is taken, and the Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are isolated, cultured, and preserved. But extracting fat from an infant isn’t exactly a practical option. A different source was needed, and as Donna herself likes to point out, necessity is the mother of innovation.
At this time, cord blood banking was already an established industry. Most companies that offer this service simply preserve the cord blood, cord tissue, and/or the placenta for future use. When Donna founded Hope Biosciences she knew she would do something different; she would offer pure stem cell banking. If the goal is to one day produce stem cell therapeutics, freezing and storing the raw tissue sources of stem cells is short-sighted. When the time comes to actually retrieve the stem cells from the stored blood or tissue, there is no guarantee that there will be enough, or any, viable cells available. After considerable thought, it was decided that the placental tissue would be the most reliable source for newborn MSCs. So Donna gave her scientists a mission — develop a method to successfully isolate newborn stem cells from the placenta.
Family Matters
For Chloe’s parents, the motivation to pursue newborn stem cell banking was the same as any other good parenting decision. When you have children, you do everything in your power to safeguard their future and protect their wellbeing.
“We wanted to prepare her for everything. The future is unknown, and there are so many things that a parent can do. We looked into and researched stem cells, and it was a very easy decision for us. It was something that came very naturally. There were a lot of questions that when we did our research and came to Hope Bio, we found a lot of answers for.”
The Kim family and Hope Bio set out to define this process together, knowing that the possibility for failure was high. Following Chloe’s birth, the newly developed protocol was put into action for the first time. The isolation procedure was a success and on March 2, 2017, Chloe became the first newborn to have her stem cells banked with Hope Biosciences!
Chloe blazed the trail for newborn stem cell banking at Hope Bio and not long after, Donna’s own newborn twins followed in her footsteps. The Kim family initially reached out seeking a way of ensuring their own daughter’s future health, and, in turn, facilitated the creation of a service that now allows anyone to preserve their newborn’s stem cells with Hope Biosciences. The field of stem cell therapy is always growing and new discoveries and advancements are made every day. The future is unpredictable, but it helps to be prepared. Newborn stem cell banking is the easiest, noninvasive way to provide children access to cell therapy, should it ever be needed.
