Biocourier

Stem cell transport, and bank-to-bank transfer

There are two different jobs here, and the one people ask about second is the one that comes up more often. A cord blood sample banked at birth may sit for twenty years - and in that time families move. Moving a stored sample from one bank to another is a transport problem with a deadline of its own, and it is work we do regularly.

It comes up when a family emigrates and wants the sample in the country they now live in; when a bank closes, merges or is bought and the account has to go somewhere; and when parents simply change provider. In each case the sample is already frozen, already documented, and belongs to someone who will not get a second one.

Bank to bank

We move the sample in the cryogenic condition it is stored in - in liquid nitrogen, in the dry shippers we own, UN1977 - so it is never thawed and refrozen in transit. We coordinate the release with the bank holding it and the acceptance with the bank receiving it, in Greece or abroad, and we arrange the customs clearance where the destination is outside the EU. Both banks will have their own release and acceptance paperwork, and the transfer moves at the speed of whichever is slower, which is why we start with them rather than with the booking.

From the birth to the bank

The other job is the original one, and it is the one with the clock on it. Guidelines specify that cord blood should ideally be transferred within 24 hours and no more than 48 hours after the birth and its collection, at +2 °C to +8 °C, in the appropriate insulated packaging. That window does not stretch, which is why the shipment is arranged before the birth rather than after it. Our support staff are available 24 hours a day, because a birth does not wait for office hours, and we deliver to the stem cell bank of your choice.

Things to watch out for

• Arrange the collection before the birth, not after. A due date is an estimate; the 24-hour window is not. Call us when you choose the bank.
• The two jobs need different equipment. The run from the birth is chilled, at +2 °C to +8 °C. A bank-to-bank transfer is cryogenic, at −196 °C. Tell us which you have and we will bring the right one.
• A bank-to-bank transfer starts with the banks. Neither will release or accept a sample without its own paperwork, and that is usually the longest part. Start it before you ask anyone for a date.
• A private bank and a public bank are not the same thing. A sample donated to a public bank is not held for your family, and it cannot be moved on request the way a privately banked one can.
• Check what the destination country requires. Importing human tissue is regulated separately from importing anything else, and the receiving bank will tell you what it needs - ask them early.

Official sources

Check these directly rather than taking anyone’s summary, including ours.

• Hellenic Cord Blood Bank, the public bank at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens: the reference point for cord blood handling in Greece.
• National Transplant Organisation (EOM): the Greek competent authority for human tissues and cells.

Which bank, which country, and whether the sample is already frozen change what the transfer needs. Call +30 210 64 66 400 or email info@kanga.gr and we will tell you what is involved before you commit to a date.