Anthony Nolan is a stem cell charity, providing a stem cell register of over 800,000 potential donors for patients in need of a transplant, helping to save the lives of people with blood cancer and other disorders. It is also a trusted supplier of cellular starting materials and related laboratory services to researchers and the biotech and pharmaceutical industry.
The ability to use liquid nitrogen to cryogenically store stem cells, donor and patient material, and umbilical cord blood (commonly known as cryopreservation) is central to the success of its ground-breaking work.
Industrial gas manufacturer, Air Products, which has over 40 years’ experience in the life sciences market, and Anthony Nolan have been working together for the last 15 years to ensure that the charity’s use of cryopreservation continues to evolve and keep up with growing demand.
Life saving infrastructure
Having cryogenically frozen cord blood and adult blood for over a decade, Anthony Nolan needed to significantly increase the volume of stem cells frozen for transplant during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the new unpredictability of transplant schedules and disruptions to travel.
The ability to freeze cells at a consistent temperature is critical because it helps preserve their unique characteristics and ensures they can be used for transplants or life-saving research as Roger Horton, Anthony Nolan’s Cell and Gene Therapy Clinical Delivery Lead explained: “Our partnership with Air Products is about more than just a supplier of liquid nitrogen – it’s about having reliable experts in cryo-gases at-hand, who provide us with all the equipment and maintenance required to keep us functioning as a provider of lifesaving cellular materials.”
Air Products supplies medical device certified liquid nitrogen to Anthony Nolan, with the largest supply going to the charity’s Nottingham site, and additional supply going to its London site. In Nottingham, a main tank holds sufficient liquid nitrogen for a week’s supply. This goes to four liquid nitrogen freezers holding cellular material for quarantine, transplant, and cell and gene therapies as well as being used to fill its CryoCart which is used as a portable cryogenic workbench.
Critical supply
Ensuring a consistent and reliable supply of liquid nitrogen is essential – fluctuations or increases in temperature would have a lasting and damaging effect on the cells, rendering them useless for transplant and research purposes.
Air Products uses a remote telemetry system at Anthony Nolan’s London site to ensure they can track and monitor supply of liquid nitrogen and avoid any disruptions.
This level of partnership and trust is critical to allowing the Anthony Nolan team to focus on their life-saving work as Chris Leonforte, Head of Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing explained: “Anthony Nolan needs a constant supply of liquid nitrogen to ensure we can freeze and provide cells for transplant. Communication is really important in the relationship with Air Products, and day to day working is pretty seamless. Deliveries come weekly and it’s largely a hands-off process which is really helpful in allowing us to focus our efforts where they are most needed.”
Air Products’ experience and scale means it has been able to dial up supply as needed to respond to increases in demand. Ben Adams, Business Manager, Speciality Products at Air Products commented: “Ensuring a consistent supply of liquid nitrogen is vital to Anthony Nolan’s work but we also need to be able to move quickly to respond when demand increases as a result of more samples being stored, or a higher requirement for controlled freezing of samples. In these instances, we’ve been able to increase supply to ensure their work can continue uninterrupted.”
Reducing carbon footprint
Second to the need for uninterrupted supply, is a real drive across the charity to reduce carbon emissions. “It’s important to Anthony Nolan that we minimise our carbon footprint as much as possible. The work we do requires a lot of energy to be able to provide safe and effective materials for transplant. Because of this we look to see where we can save small amounts of energy,” explained Chris Leonforte.
Anthony Nolan has worked closely with Air Products and MVE Biological Solutions, the leading global manufacturer of vacuum insulated products and cryogenic systems, to ensure its cryotanks are energy efficient and supporting the organisations’ shared focus on generating a cleaner future.
The HEco 1500 & 1800 Series freezers employed by Anthony Nolan at its Nottingham site are the most efficient vapour freezers available, providing maximum storage density and the longest hold time and highest sample security in the industry’s history. Some also incorporate hinged work surfaces that fully enclose all electronics and plumbing to enhance overall safety and usability.
Chris Leonforte commented: “The cryotanks that were provided by Air Products and MVE are vapour phase liquid nitrogen tanks, which means the amount of liquid nitrogen required to maintain cryogenic temperatures is less as the cells are not submerged in liquid nitrogen. In other words, a vapour phase tank allows Anthony Nolan to maintain the life-saving cells at the required temperature of -190oC whilst using less liquid nitrogen.”
Long-term partnership
The partnership between the two organisations continues to evolve, with Air Products consistently reviewing its supply mode, including tank sizing, freezer capacity, bespoke racking, the location of the cryo room and the filling method. “Industrial gases, including liquid nitrogen, are used in a vast variety of sectors and industries, and are central to keeping manufacturing operations running,” said Stephen Robinson, Biomedical Product Manager, Air Products.
“It’s quite remarkable however that in the life sciences and medical sector, consistent supply of liquid nitrogen, and reliable kit and monitoring services can – quite literally – mean the difference between life and death. That’s a responsibility we take extremely seriously, regularly challenging ourselves to review and improve the service we are providing.”
For both organisations, this is much more than a demand-supply relationship, but rather a long-term partnership in which they are heavily invested. Chris Leonforte added: “We enjoy working with Air Products on a number of different collaborations in the form of events and workshops, helping us contribute even more to the field of cell therapies and transplant science. Having reliable partners that are invested in who we are, and the critically important work we do is so important.”
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