Jose Cirino, Director of Operations for GeneCell International, Accentuates the Importance Surrounding the Minority …

Director of Operations of GeneCell International, Jose Cirino, Stresses the Need for Increase in Marrow Among the Minority Community via the Breakthrough of Future Medicine, Cord Blood Stem Cells

Miami, Florida (PRWEB) March 31, 2013

Through his field of work, Cirinos aspiration and passion is being able to assist individuals in potentially saving their life when a debilitating immune deficiency or disorder arises. Though, Cirino continuously asks himself, Why isn't everyone banking these cells?

His best assumption is that people are not informed about stem cell banking and what is most disheartening, some have never even heard of it. Most people are not aware they have stem cells in their body. Others believe that stem cells only come from only human embryos since this is whats mainly discussed in politics and the news today. May this be the reason they are choosing to have no part in it and ignore it? If so, this is not the case, these cells are found in adults and there are not controversial, moral, ethical or have any political issues surrounding them. The amazing thing about these cells, aside from their potential to treat a variety of different diseases, is that for the most part they can be harvested from the individual through relatively minimally invasive procedures and can be cryogenically frozen (at a temperature of -321 F [-196 C]) and stored for decades until a disease manifests itself or the needed for cell-based therapies arises," said Cirino.

Due to this lack of awareness, there is a massive shortage of stem cell units stored for future treatments. This shortage, or lack of availability, is mostly affecting patients of African, Asian, Hispanic and Native American Indian descent. I, being a minority member of this group, am very concerned by this shortage. Since patients who need a transplant are more likely to find a match within their own genetic background, Cirino adds it is important that the pool of donors reflects the overall community.

A persons blood stem cell type is inherited, which means a patient is more likely to find a matched donor from within their own ethnic group, more than half of cord blood donations and privately banked cord blood in the United States are from Caucasians while minorities remain underrepresented, significantly. By increasing awareness of the advantages of cord blood among minorities, there is a potential for increased access to therapies for more people.

Umbilical cord blood preservation is a process by which blood is collected from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby and is stored cryogenically in a specially-designated bank. According to the National Marrow Donor Program, cord blood contains cells that can be transfused to a patient to treat various diseases, including lymphoma and leukemia. Currently, there are approximately 80 treatable diseases and the list of illnesses continues to grow. Cord blood is rich in stem cells and because certain immune cells found in the cord blood are not mature, there is less risk for the recipients immune system to reject these cells. Cord blood can be used to treat the child from whom the blood was collected as well as some first-degree relatives who are a close genetic match, such as immediate family members. Additionally, patients can get the treatment in about three weeks - as opposed to six to eight for bone marrow from an adult donor.

Prior to founding GeneCell, Cirino served as the President of the International Division to a cord blood laboratory in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was responsible implementing affiliate programs throughout various international countries. After the expansion into other countries, Cirino would manage the company owned offices as well as provide support to the affiliate offices, from Mexico and South America, to the UK and the Middle East. He also represented the company at international health and biotech industry conferences and oversaw all accounting tasks as a method of monitoring its sales projections. Cirino joined the company as the Accounting Manager, where he was responsible for all aspects of U.S. and international accounting functions. He is a seasoned accounting professional, holding various accounting positions within large companies such as Sir Speedy Printing Centers of Boston and Harvard Institute for International Development. He has served as a member within various industry organizations including the International Cord Blood Society, and New England Fertility Society, as well as participated in the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), The Mexican Federation of Ultrasounds, The World Cord Blood Congress, Stem Cells USA-Regenerative Medicine conferences and a member of the Institutional Business Advisory Committee for the College of Business and Technology (CBT College) in Miami Florida.

In addition to cord blood, Cirinos implementation projects of other adult stem cells sources in the U.S. and other international countries include Cord Tissue Segment, Dental Pulp and Adipose (fat) Tissue:

About Cord Tissue Segment - A gelatinous substance, which functions as the primary connective tissue of the umbilical cord and is referred to as Whartons Jelly. This segment contains an important amount of Mesenchymal stem cells. These cells are an excellent candidate for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering applications. Mesenchymal stem cells have shown great promise in the potential treatment of diseases such as heart attack, Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, type I diabetes, assist in bone and dental regeneration and expedite wound healing. In the past, the umbilical cord has been viewed as medical waste and discarded, resulting in the loss of this potential life-saving resource. By storing the stem cells extracted from your umbilical cord tissue segment along with your babys cord blood, youll have access to a wider variety of stem cells as new scientific discoveries are made.

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Jose Cirino, Director of Operations for GeneCell International, Accentuates the Importance Surrounding the Minority ...