ThermoGenesis' AXP AutoXpress™ Platform is Launched by GE Healthcare
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ThermoGenesis Corp. has announced that GE Healthcare has introduced the Company's AXP AutoXpress Platform (AXP Platform), an automated, functionally closed, sterile system that harvests stem cells from cord blood with high yield and high throughput.
The AXP Platform is designed to bring automation and precision to cord blood stem cell processing, which is today performed using manual methods.
In October 2005, GE Healthcare acquired the global exclusive distribution rights for the AXP Platform from the Company, as well as the non-exclusive distribution rights for the BioArchive® System, a computer-controlled cryopreservation and storage system for cord blood.
The Company estimates there are already about 200 cord blood banks operating in 44 countries collecting several hundred thousand cord blood units annually in this rapidly growing field.
According to Phil Coelho, Chairman and CEO, "A critical step in cord blood banking is the reduction of the collected volumes of cord blood (up to 170 ml/each) into a final volume of 20 ml with minimal loss of the mononuclear cell populations, which include all the stem cells."
"Reproducible volume reduction, without significant loss of stem cells, is critical in obtaining the precise freezing profile essential for post thaw stem cell viability."
"Since studies demonstrate that the AXP Platform can collect 97% of the mononuclear cells (MNC) from cord blood, cord blood banks that implement the AXP Platform should benefit not only from consistent high recoveries of the MNC, but also from using an automated functionally closed system that eliminates the need to process cord blood in labor-intensive and expensive clean rooms."
