New research published in the New England Journal of Medicine provides further evidence that cord blood can be used to actually save infants with rare genetic diseases.

Science Daily recently covered new research published on May 19th in the New England Journal of Medicine.  From the article:

"the findings add to the growing body of evidence showing that cord blood can save children with other fatal “lysosomal storage diseases,” each of which stems from a specific enzyme deficiency.

These disorders include more than 45 rare diseases, such as Krabbe disease, Hurler syndrome, Adrenoleukodystrophy, Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, Tay-Sachs disease, Sandhoff disease and a host of others."

This is good news for those who may be genetically at risk for such diseases - although the key seems to be foresight in planning to save cord blood and then to use stem cells from the cord blood before the child develops symptoms.