Source:
https://scmp.com/presented/tech/topics/mononuclear-therapeutics/article/3046023/mononuclear-therapeutics-earns-aabb
Tech

Mononuclear Therapeutics earns AABB accreditation for Hong Kong’s first public cord blood mononuclear cell bank

Prof. Wise Young, Chairman of Mononuclear Therapeutics shared the far-reaching impact of the public cord blood bank in aiding tens of thousands of patients, in view of the high demand for cellular therapeutics of neurological diseases.

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Inside a lab with high-tech tanks filled with liquid nitrogen at Hong Kong Science Park, there are as many as 1,000 packs of frozen stem cells, the contents of which have the potential to help spinal cord injury survivors regain mobility and even save lives. 

Set up and operated by Mononuclear Therapeutics Limited (MonoTx), a partner company of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), the cord blood facility is Hong Kong’s first public umbilical cord blood mononuclear cell (UCBMNC) bank, which has recently been accredited by AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks). 

This AABB accreditation is a mark of MonoTx’s commitment to international credibility by complying with established standards to ensure the highest level of safety when it comes to the collection, processing, testing and distribution of cord blood cells. 

The immature stem cells in cord blood can be used to treat more than 80 diseases, most frequently blood cancers and other blood disorders such as leukaemia and lymphoma. MonoTx is working on the R&D on stem cells from cord blood to help with the restoration of function after spinal cord injury, stroke and age-related macular degeneration. 

(From left) Simon Sze, associate director, BioMedical Technology Cluster of HKSTP; Prof. Wise Young, chairman of Mononuclear Therapeutics and Prof. Ronald Wang, division head, department of obstetrics & gynaecology of CUHK introduced the first public umbilical cord blood mononuclear cell bank in Hong Kong.
(From left) Simon Sze, associate director, BioMedical Technology Cluster of HKSTP; Prof. Wise Young, chairman of Mononuclear Therapeutics and Prof. Ronald Wang, division head, department of obstetrics & gynaecology of CUHK introduced the first public umbilical cord blood mononuclear cell bank in Hong Kong.

Prof Wise Young, chairman and lab director of MonoTx, is committed to bringing treatments to people with spinal cord injuries. He hopes to provide sufficient UCBMNC inventory that can be HLA-matched to treat millions of patients and provide immune-matched cells to other biotech companies in developing cell products for other diseases. 

MonoTx is a recipient of The Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) to collaborate with the Chinese University of Hong Kong to collect umbilical cord blood and to do preclinical animal studies of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

“We are exploring further collaboration with different hospitals and clinics in Hong Kong to encourage new mothers to donate cord blood to the public UBCMNC bank, for the sake of saving lives and developing new treatments,” Prof Young said. Currently, about 90 per cent of the cord blood in Hong Kong is discarded as medical waste. It can be used to support life-saving research for new cellular therapies for a range of diseases. 

In return for their donations, mothers can get back their MNCs at no cost if it is required for cell therapy of the donor’s children. Prior to the establishment of the public cord blood bank, parents could only rely on private cord blood banks to store cord blood cells at a very high cost. 

Mononuclear Therapeutics attained an international accreditation from AABB for Hong Kong’s first public umbilical cord blood mononuclear cell bank, based at Hong Kong Science Park.
Mononuclear Therapeutics attained an international accreditation from AABB for Hong Kong’s first public umbilical cord blood mononuclear cell bank, based at Hong Kong Science Park.

The “cryopreservation” freezers of the MonoTx’s lab contain blood harvested from umbilical cords and placentas of new-born babies. After obtaining consent from expectant mothers, cord blood is collected and delivered to the lab for registration and processing. Cord blood units are processed in the clean room. After undergoing the freezing and quarantine processes, they will be stored in the liquid nitrogen tank on the condition that all test results have met acceptance criteria, explained Grace Lau, technical and QC manager at MonoTx. 

The banked cells have high viability, no bacteria and fungi contamination. Donor screening and testing have to be done to ensure no infectious diseases and that the cord blood cells are typed for human leukocyte antigen (HLA). All these allow the patient to find the safe, effective and immune-matched MNCs for transplantation. MNCs are stored in a liquid nitrogen tank with temperatures lower than -150°C to maintain a potential shelf-life of 30 years or longer.

Cord blood units are processed in the clean room.
Cord blood units are processed in the clean room.

As the gateway to China and part of the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong is an ideal place to set up a public UCBMNC bank. Hong Kong allows for access to a large pool of stem cells of a 60 million population of Asian ethnic origin, to further develop suitable cellular therapeutics for the larger Asian population around the world. He believes Hong Kong has the potential to become the stem cell capital of the world. 

 “In the long run, we aspire to eventually build a 30,000-unit public bank for public use in Asia. I’m especially thankful for the fruitful partnership we have with HKSTP for assisting us with setting up this lab and introducing us to investors,” said Prof Young.

 “We would like to congratulate MonoTx on achieving the AABB accreditation and taking one step closer to making cell therapeutics more readily available in Asia. We are delighted that MonoTx is pioneering the development of cellular therapeutics for neurological diseases, right here at Science Park,” said Simon Sze, associate director of the BioMedical Technology Cluster of HKSTP.

“Hong Kong has a strong potential to become a biomedical technology hub. We have three clinical trials centres recognised by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA). Over the past 10 years or so, a number of clinical trials carried out in Hong Kong have met the requirements of the FDA and EMA.” 

HKSTP will continue to serve Hong Kong’s biotech community, facilitate biomedical advances and transform Hong Kong into Asia’s biotech hub, Sze added.