CLEVELAND, Ohio – June 4, 2020 – The Cleveland Cord Blood Center is pleased to announce that Jonathan D. Kenyon, Ph.D., has joined the organization’s research staff. Dr. Kenyon will lead the center’s ongoing research exploring the application of umbilical cord blood-derived iTreg cells for the prevention and treatment of diabetic retinopathy. The project is one of several spearheaded by the Cleveland Cord Blood Center to identify and harness the lifesaving potential that cord blood stem cells hold in cell therapy treatments.
Prior to joining the Cleveland Cord Blood Center, Kenyon was a Postdoctoral Scholar and Postdoctoral Fellow at Case Western Reserve University, where he was recently involved in the generation and testing of Crispr/Cas9 lentiviral constructs targeting MCAM and KITLG to study the metastatic process.
He received his Ph.D. from the Case Western Reserve University Department of Pathology and he holds dual Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology and Entomology from Michigan State University. With nearly 20 years of research experience, his published co-authored research, invited talks and poster abstracts number more than two dozen.
“Dr. Kenyon has a personal perspective as he has family members, including his father, who have dealt with the effects of diabetes,” said Executive Director Marcie Finney. “His commitment to finding new cell therapy solutions in this field is well aligned with the organization’s mission of advancing umbilical cord blood cell therapy treatments to save lives, enhance health and expand knowledge, one birth at a time.”
About the Cleveland Cord Blood Center (CCBC)
The Cleveland Cord Blood Center (CCBC), is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3), independent public cord blood bank serving as a leader in the collection, processing, storage and distribution of quality cord blood stem cell units for transplantation in patients with life threatening disorders such as leukemia, lymphoma and immune system disorders. The Center is one of only eight FDA-approved Cord Blood Centers in the U.S. Launched in 2008, The Cleveland Cord Blood Center was founded in 2008 by Mary J. Laughlin, M.D., who performed one of the world’s first successful umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants on an adult leukemia patient in 1995. With headquarters in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, umbilical cord collection sites are located in Cleveland, Ohio, Atlanta, Georgia, and San Francisco, California. For more information, visit clevelandcordblood.org or call 1-866-922-3668.
Jonathan D. Kenyon, Ph.D. Research Associate, Cleveland Cord Blood Center
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