LifeShare Blood Centers will continue promoting a cord blood bank pilot program and step up efforts to register bone marrow donors this year.

LifeShare partnered with Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, where 14% of all Louisiana babies are born, in 2008 for the pilot program. Umbilical cords contain stem cells that can be used in transplants to treat more than 70 diseases, many of them cancers and blood disorders.

Since June, LifeShare has collected 154 cord blood units. Besides promoting the cord blood bank, LifeShare will try to increase awareness about its role in recruiting bone marrow donors this year.