Cord Blood Awareness Month 2026

In a lab at Canadian Blood Services, Dr. Harinad Maganti and his team are working at the frontier of medicine—transforming a once-overlooked biological material into a powerful tool for discovery and healing. As a research scientist and scientific director for cellular therapies, Dr. Maganti leads a team exploring how cutting-edge science can turn cord blood stem cells into life-changing treatments for diseases like cancer, sickle cell disease, and more.

Cord blood, collected at birth with parental consent, is rich in stem cells—versatile building blocks capable of becoming many types of cells in the body. While some cord blood units are stored for transplants, many do not meet the size requirements for banking and would otherwise go unused. Through the Canadian Blood Services Cord Blood for Research program, these donated units are given a second life in research labs, where they are helping unlock new frontiers in medicine.

For Dr. Maganti’s team, access to these donations is critical. “Cord blood is a very important source of our research material,” he explains. His lab uses it to develop gene editing technologies aimed at treating genetic diseases like sickle cell disease and thalassemia. Today, gene editing therapies can cost millions of dollars per patient—far out of reach for most people. One of the lab’s goals is to make these therapies more accessible by improving how the gene-editing tools are delivered into stem cells. Instead of using viruses or electrical pulses - which can be inefficient and risky - the team is experimenting with lipid nanoparticles, tiny delivery vehicles that cells can naturally absorb.

To make this work, researchers must test thousands of variations to find the safest and most effective combination. Cord blood stem cells allow them to do precisely that, offering a realistic model of healthy human cells. “It lets us do proper testing,” Dr. Maganti says, “so the results will translate better into real treatments.”

Beyond gene editing, perhaps the most exciting work lies in cancer research. Using cord blood stem cells, Dr. Maganti’s team has developed a way to create natural killer (NK) cells—immune cells whose role is to seek out and destroy unhealthy cells, including cancer. Early findings show these lab-grown NK cells can attack a wide range of cancers, including brain, breast, and blood cancers.

This research is part of a growing field called immunotherapy, one of the biggest breakthroughs in cancer treatment in recent decades. However, many immunotherapies are expensive and personalized - requiring cells to be extracted from a patient, engineered, and then returned to that same individual. Dr. Maganti’s work aims to change that.

By creating “off-the-shelf” immunotherapies from donated cord blood, treatments could be produced in advance, stored, and made readily available to patients who need them. This approach could dramatically lower costs and expand access. “You can make them ahead of time and freeze them,” he says. “That will really reduce the cost and make it more accessible to Canadians.”

The innovation doesn’t stop there. Remarkably, these therapies can be developed using cord blood units that are too small for transplantation—materials that might otherwise go to waste. In this way, cord blood donation becomes both efficient and impactful, extending the value of each donation and supporting a more sustainable research ecosystem.

The potential benefits are vast. With one in four Canadians expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, the need for effective, affordable treatments has never been greater. Cord blood-derived therapies could play a major role in meeting this challenge, offering new hope to patients while reducing the burden on the healthcare system.

Although much of the work is still underway, progress is steady. Dr. Maganti’s team, made up of about 11 researchers, is currently advancing several projects and preparing to publish their findings. Each discovery builds on the last, bringing science closer to breakthroughs that could transform how diseases are treated.

Looking ahead, Dr. Maganti sees cord blood as a key player in the future of medicine, especially in cancer care. With continued support and increased participation in donation programs, its impact could grow even further.

At its heart, this work is about possibility: turning something that is not able to be transfused into a new source of healing.  Every donated cord blood unit represents a chance to not only provide a life-saving stem cell treatment to a patient in need, but it can also advance research, reduce costs, and bring new therapies within reach. For patients and families, it offers something even more powerful: hope.

July is Cord Blood Awareness Month. The public Canadian Blood Services Cord Blood Bank stores precious lifesaving cord blood units collected from generous parents and their babies who are born in four hospitals: The Ottawa Hospital (General Campus); Brampton Civic Hospital; Lois Hole Hospital for Women in Edmonton; and BC Women’s Hospital. Learn more about donating cord blood at www.blood.ca/cordblood.

Canadian Blood Services – Driving world-class innovation 

Through discovery, development and applied research, Canadian Blood Services drives world-class innovation in blood transfusion, cellular therapy and transplantation—bringing clarity and insight to an increasingly complex healthcare future. Our dedicated research team and extended network of partners engage in exploratory and applied research to create new knowledge, inform and enhance best practices, contribute to the development of new services and technologies, and build capacity through training and collaboration. Find out more about our research impact.  

The opinions reflected in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Canadian Blood Services nor do they reflect the views of Health Canada or any other funding agency.