The Stem Cell Collection and Storage course (SCP-1102) is designed to teach healthcare professionals about the use of stem cells as a key component of preventative medicine. Two major issues the healthcare community is currently suffering from are the shortages in organ transplantation and an aging population. These issues have inspired a search for new and alternative therapies. Organ transplantation saves many lives each year and restores essential functions for many otherwise untreatable patients. Regenerative medicine aims to restore the functions of those failing organs and tissues for patients with serious injuries or chronic disease using the patient’s own stem cells eliminating the need for allogeneic transplantation. There are approximately 90,000 patients in the US transplant-waiting list. In addition, there is a wide array of major unmet medical needs which might be addressed by regenerative technologies. New and current regenerative medicines can use stem cells to create living and functional tissues to regenerate and repair tissue and organs in the body that are damaged due to age, disease and congenital defects. Stem cells have the power to go to these damaged areas and regenerate new cells and tissues by performing a repair and a renewal process, restoring functionality.

Stem cells have the innate ability in a living organism to maintain and repair tissues and organs. Just as one may bank his or her own blood for elective surgical procedures, healthy individuals can save their stem cells by cryopreservation after an apheresis procedure. In addition to adult stem cell banking this course will cover Umbilical cord blood (UCB) which is an abundant source stem cells. UCB banks have over 500,000 autologous samples being stored in the United States and cord blood stem cells have now been used in more than 40,000 transplants worldwide to treat nearly 80 diseases. Current stem cell treatments have shown success over the years and it is anticipated that the therapies will be further refined to improve success rates.

In this subspecialty course of the Advanced Stem Cell Education Program, lecturers will discuss the collection process, stem cell transplantation and the rationale of adult stem cell and umbilical cord blood banking. Lectures in the second half of this course will discuss the development of new cellular therapies, current issues with stem cell based therapies and the clinical treatments of hematological malignancies with adult stem cells. As with all subspecialty courses, ASTEP includes a stem cell essentials package which includes: ten biology of stem cells lectures, and three lectures based on the regulation of stem cell therapies in addition to the topic specific lectures of this course.

Course Code: SCP-1102

• Classes Start: Self-paced open enrollment
• Estimated effort: 9 weeks of material, 4-5 hours/week
• 6 topic quizzes, Final Exam
• 35 lectures | Approx. 1 hour per lecture
• Physician CME eligible: Yes
• 44.0 CME AMA PRA Category 1 Credits
• Program includes digital streaming of lectures and PDF resources
• Learn instantly with any computer or laptop with a strong internet connection

Prerequisites:

Some background in biology is helpful. This course may contain discussion of unlabeled and/or investigational uses of agents not approved by the FDA. Please consult the prescribing information for each product.