By Edmond Ortiz
A first was recently achieved in San Antonio with the only mobile cell therapy collection vehicle in the world.
What happened
San Antonio-based nonprofit BioBridge Global Advanced Therapies’ mobile cell collection bus – the only vehicle of its kind – recorded its first donation, BBG representatives said on Oct. 22.
According to a press release, the mobile cell collection vehicle can help to widen access to lifesaving treatments across a 63,000-square mile area underserved by next-generation advanced therapies.
The release stated that the concept for a mobile cell collection vehicle came from the long-standing practice where BBG’s subsidiary, South Texas Blood and Tissue, has collected blood donations on “blood buses.”
“Just like our blood bus in 1974 brought donation opportunities into the community, this vehicle brings cell collections directly to patients,” Adrienne Mendoza, BBG Advanced Therapies’ COO, said in a statement. “This makes what was once limited to special centers accessible to everyone everywhere.”
Cell collection on BBG Advance Therapies’ new vehicle is accomplished via leukapheresis, a process through which certain types of white blood cells are extracted from the bloodstream, and then the remaining blood components are returned to the donor.
The mobile leukapheresis center features two cell collection stations, a testing laboratory, a wheelchair lift and an onboard lavatory
During the collection, a patient or donor sits in a reclining chair and may choose from a variety of entertainment options, including television, movies and music.
What you should know
BBG officials said the mobile cell collection bus helps to create a new generation of treatments and donors.
According to the release, immune cells donated in the mobile leukapheresis center are used by therapeutic developers to form personalized therapies. Such therapies help patients to heal using their own immune systems.
Therapeutic developers are conditioning the collected cells to treat blood cancers, solid tumors, autoimmune disorders, and certain other ailments.
The process, according to the release, is centered around “training” patients’ or donors’ cells to identify and kill cancer cells, or treat genetic disorders and other severe illnesses with targeted treatment.
BBG representatives said the FDA in recent years has approved 30-plus advanced therapies, but patients’ access to those advanced therapies is presently limited because most patients must frequently travel a long way to academic research centers in other major metropolitan areas.
What they are saying
Mendoza said it can be difficult for most any patient or donor to access such therapies in a region the size of South Texas.
“We believe that bringing this option to our service area can help make cutting-edge healthcare available to many, many more patients who need it,” Mendoza said about the bus in a statement.
Simon Hart, a 32-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran and a master’s degree candidate in kinesiology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, was the first donor aboard the mobile leukapheresis center.
According to the release, Hart was aged 16 when his father persuaded him to begin regular blood donations.
Those donations have since taken on a new meaning for Hart, whose father died from cancer earlier this year.
“Everything I do from here on out is for him,” Hart said in a statement. Anyone interested in joining the registry to potentially serve as a cell donor can sign up at https://biobridgeglobal.org/donors/donor-registry.
