Spotlight On

Vision:
Managing Gifts, Saving Lives

Mission:
New York Blood Center will provide our community with the highest-quality transfusion products and services, as well as leading-edge research, technological and medical care innovation, and education in the field of transfusion medicine.

Background:
For 40 years, the New York Blood Center (NYBC) has been responsible for the blood-related healthcare of 20 million residents in the greater metropolitan area, serving one of the most diverse populations in the world. As one of the nation's largest independent blood distribution and services organization, NYBC provides blood and blood products for more than one million transfusions annually, supplying a significant portion of the nation's blood supply. It serves almost 200 hospitals and 20 million people in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. NYBC is also home to the prestigious Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, one of the world's leading centers for basic and applied research in hematology and transfusion medicine. The Institute, with 12 research laboratories, is dedicated to the study of blood and the prevention, treatment and cure of blood-borne and blood-related diseases. Its investigators have made major contributions toward understanding and combating a wide range of diseases, such as AIDS, hepatitis, malaria and leukemia - making it possible for thousands of people to live healthier lives.

Recent Successes:

Community Outreach - New York Blood Center's new Strategic Plan, enacted this past year, enables us to reach out more aggressively into our communities making NYBC more visible and more valuable to people. We already monitor donor's health when they give blood by providing them with basic medical information such as blood pressure and hemoglobin level. Our plan now is to expand these services for our donors.

NYBC's Hereditary Hemochromatosis Program deepens our ties to the community by providing free screenings to our donor population for this common genetic disease, characterized by a dangerous excess of iron in the body.

National Cord Blood Program - One of the past year's most exciting developments has been the growth of the National Cord Blood Program at NYBC. The Program has helped to establish the value of stem-cell rich cord blood as a more effective and less expensive alternative to bone marrow transplants for patients suffering a wide variety of diseases of the blood.

Advances in HIV Treatments - Scientists in our Viral Immunology Laboratory and the Molecular Modeling and Drug Design Laboratory, have been jointly developing anti-HIV drugs targeting an HIV surface protein responsible for virus fusion. One of our recent patents was licensed to Trimeris, Inc. for development of T-20 (brand name: Fuzeon), which was approved by the FDA in March, 2003 as the first member of a new class of anti-HIV treatments known as HIV fusion inhibitors. Now we are focusing on the identification of smaller anti-HIV compounds which potentially could be taken orally and be less expensive than T-20.

In addition, we have also started to identify anti-HIV agents targeted to another HIV surface structure where the virus binds to the host cell, thereby causing infection. The hope is to develop compounds that occupy that structure and block HIV entry into healthy cells. Moreover, we are involved in projects related to hantavirus, a potential bioterrorism agent, and to severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). The group is developing human monoclonal antibodies against hantavirus as immunotherapeutic and preventative agents. The group is also working on identifying virus fusion inhibitors and subunit vaccines for the treatment and prevention of SARS.

Project Achieve - Ten Years of HIV Research - Fighting the war against HIV infection has been the work of Project Achieve, a program of the Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Project, which takes multiple research approaches to the HIV epidemic.

In the area of prevention, Project Achieve has been participating in clinical trials of candidate HIV vaccines and in developing strategies for changing the behavior of at-risk populations. The group is a research site in an international clinical trial of suppressing HSV-2 (genital herpes) infection as a means to prevent HIV infection. The trial is taking place at sites in the US, Peru, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Biochemical Virology - The Biochemical Virology Laboratory continued its efforts to develop a topical microbioide for the prevention of sexual transmission of the AIDS virus, herpes viruses, and other sexually transmitted disease pathogens. The molecular basis for the activity of the microbicide has been established, and the microbicide will enter Phase I human clinical trials shortly.

Immunochemistry - NYBC and the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute is home to our highly successful and internationally recognized applied research program. It explores biochemistry, molecular biology and the characteristic cell surfaces of red blood cells that define the various blood types. Study of these blood group antigens provides insight into the relationship of the blood groups to health and disease. The program is funded by a large transfusion medicine center grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and NYBC is one of only two such centers being funded.

Molecular Parasitology - This laboratory is involved in the development of a vaccine against Onchocerca volvulus that infects some 20 million people in West Africa and Central America, and causes River Blindness. In addition, the properties of molecules produced by the parasite, which regulate the human immune system and thus support infection, are being studied. These studies may uncover mechanisms and molecules with potential therapeutic applications to allergy, other infectious disease and autoimmunity.

In a related research effort, molecules essential for the development of the human parasite were identified. By studying the homologous proteins in the free-living nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, these molecules were validated as potential drug targets. The laboratory is also exploring the pathways used by the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, to invade red cells. These research programs are funded by three NIH grants.

Funding Needs:
Gifts, bequests and trusts are an important source of funding for the New York Blood Center. They support a broad range of programs in special events, education and scientific research that advance the frontiers of blood safety, the practice of transfusion medicine and the prevention, treatment and cure of disease throughout our community, the country and the world. The Blood Center especially welcomes gifts without restrictions because they provide greater flexibility to pursue new initiatives and meet program needs. However, when a donor is interested in making a gift, bequest or trust to be used for any specific purpose of the Center, such use may be specified.

Every month, the "Spotlight On" highlights the activities of a different 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in the tri-state region (NY, NJ, or CT). The selection of organizations for the "Spotlight On" is based on criteria such as programmatic interests, geographic focus, and size, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the region's nonprofit sector.

If you'd like to see your NPO in the "Spotlight," please use this submission form to send us a profile of your organization. Or e-mail a description of your organization, following the above format, to nyweb@foundationcenter.org, with "Spotlight Submission" in the subject line.