Chennai , Feb 9 A city-based Indo-Japan joint venture institute NCRM today signed an MoU with Jeevan Stem Cell Bank, a unit of Jeevan Blood Bank and Research Centre, to jointly conduct research in stored cord blood stem cells and related applications.

According to the agreement, NCRM ( Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine) would support Jeevan, the first public cord blood bank in the country, by conducting research on expansion of Umbilical cord blood stem cells. The research could benefit many patients with blood cancers.

NCRM would use the advanced laboratory and storage facilities of Jeevan Stem Cell for testing the quantity and quality of stem cells derived from adult bone marrow cells and to cryopreserve them, a release said.

This collaboration would also pave the way for joint venture with Japanese Haematologists, who have vast experience in the clinical application of umbilical cord derived stem cells in Leukaemia and related haematological disorders, it added.