Scalability considerations when using cord blood as an allogeneic starting material

Joy Aho, PhD, is the Senior Product Managerat Be The Match BioTherapies®, where she develops innovative products andbest-in-class services for the cell and gene therapy industry. Prior to joiningthe team, she worked in product development and management at Bio-Techne for 13years designing pioneering clinical and discovery tools for the development of celland gene therapies. Aho received her PhD in Molecular, Cellular, andDevelopmental Biology & Genetics from the University of Minnesota, and her researchled her to studying the role of TGFß family proteins during embryonic development utilizingstem cells and developmental models.

Wouter Van’t Hof holds a PhD in Cell Biology from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and has over 15 years of biotech experience in the USA in translational research and development of adult stem cell therapies, including bone marrow stromal cells (MSC) and HPC, cord blood. He is currently Cord Blood Bank Director of the Cleveland Cord Blood Center (CCBC). Under his direction, CCBC obtained FDA approval for the manufacture and distribution of HPC, Cord Blood under federal license, as one of only eight nationally licensed cord blood banks in the USA. As Cord Blood Bank Director he oversees Laboratory Operations, including CMC, Process Validation, Aseptic Processing, and GMP compliance. In addition, Wouter leads the Cell Therapy Incubator (CTI), a new CCBC initiative facilitating internal and external programs for broader development of cord blood cell-based therapies in regenerative medicine. From 2002 to 2013, he was a Director at Athersys, Inc., with responsibility for technology transfer, product and process development, preclinical safety, and was deeply involved in regulatory discussion for clinical study design and management of a GVHD prophylaxis trial. He was the scientific lead on the completed Phase 1 safety study in HSCT support for the MultiStem Product. During his academic career, Dr Van’t Hof was an Assistant Professor of Cell Biology in Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and Assistant Professor of Genetic Medicine, Institute of Genetic Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University.