Stem cells have been taken from the umbilical cord of a boy born yesterday at a Co Derry hospital. They will be stored in case the baby has a serious disease later.
The boy was born at the Causeway hospital in Coleraine in a scheduled operation yesterday afternoon. The cord containing the cells were harvested in a procedure which health authorities say went smoothly. The cells were then flown to South Africa for deep-freezing.
It is understood it is the first time such a procedure has been carried out in a Northern Ireland hospital. Interest in "umbilical cord banking" is now expected to rise.
The baby's parents, Liza Ackermann and Dr Brahm Ackermann, are from South Africa, but have lived in Coleraine for three years. "Stem cells are like the master cells of the body," Dr Ackermann said. "Therefore they can be used for people who have heart problems. They could also be used to treat cancer, especially leukaemia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease," he told the BBC.
Ms Ackermann said the procedure to extract stem cells from her second child's cord was a kind of "insurance policy".
Frank Barry, professor of cellular therapy at the University of Galway and scientific director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute, said evidence of the usefulness of stem cells was growing.
"The umbilical cord is a very rich source of stem cells. We are seeing more evidence that stem cells can be therapeutically very useful, and are likely to be widely used in the future to treat a broad variety of diseases."