Infirmary Health Participates In Space Station Program

Infirmary Health has announced that, through an ongoing partnership with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, CD-34 cells (stem cells) collected from umbilical cord blood, including those collected by Dr. Megan Dimoff at Thomas Hospital, will soon travel to the International Space Station. LifeSouth was selected to provide these cells to Dr. Abba Zubair of the Mayo Clinic for his research study aboard the space station. Zubair and others are studying how these stem cells will divide or expand in space, versus how the same cells expand on Earth, with the ultimate goal that these cells will be used for cancer treatment. A spacecraft is scheduled to launch this month from Kennedy Space Center and will carry these cryogenically preserved cells to the International Space Station. Crew members on board will thaw the cells and seed them into specialized hardware to allow them to expand.