SMART CELLS INTERNATIONAL

STEM CELL COLLECTION AND STORAGE

PRESS RELEASE

September 28, 2010.

SMART CELLS’ USA UNIVERSITY PARTNER MOVES ON CEREBRAL PALSY CURE RESEARCH.

London-based Smart Cells International Ltd (SCI), the UK’s longest-established stem cell banking service, has established a partnership with Duke University in North Carolina, USA, one of the world’s leading healthcare learning centres.

SCI, which operates worldwide, has already been involved with two transplants relating to cerebral palsy treatment at Duke using autologous stem cells stored by SCI clients, where there was no indicator in the family or during pregnancy that cerebral palsy would develop.

“We’ve obviously being paying a great deal of attention to developments at Duke University given the developing partnership, and we’re absolutely delighted that Duke is now running a blind clinical trial and have funding to do so.

“Members of the team at Duke believe the key to at least lessening the severity of cerebral palsy lies within cord blood stem cells, and they have begun a clinical trial to find out if that is true,” said Amanda Cool of SCI.

Duke’s Paediatric Bone Marrow and Transplant program and director of the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank, has begun a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-authorised random clinical trial to see if cord blood stem cells have the ability to cure or lessen spastic cerebral palsy in children aged between one and six years.

It is among a handful of authorised clinical trials in the USA involving stem cells.

The study is funded through a $10.2 million grant and has the potential to provide hope for people with cerebral palsy, and their families, as well as opening new doors or establish protocols for the use and gathering of stem cells.

Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects a person’s ability to move and maintain balance. It is most often caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain before or during birth which results in damage to the portion of the brain that controls muscle tone.

Amanda Cool added: “We understand the goal of the clinical trial is as much about finding a treatment for cerebral palsy as it is about finding out what cord blood can do.”

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley

im@pressrelations.co.uk

+44 (0)7788 978800

www.smartcells.com

Notes:

Smart Cells, formed in February 2001, collects stem cells on behalf of families worldwide and stores samples at its labs in West Drayton near London Heathrow Airport in the UK. Smart Cells’ lab provides cord blood preparation and storage in an environment designed to comply with all current and foreseeable European medical guidelines and practices.

Stem cell storage expert Smart Cells International has been named London’s Life Sciences Exporter of the Year at the London Export Awards 2010,

Smart Cells International is fully licensed by the Human Tissue Authority and holds licence no 22522.