Derek J. Ragusa put his money where his mouth was -- in a manner of speaking.

When his wife, Tracy, gave birth on July 31, they decided to donate the placenta, or afterbirth, to the Louisiana Stem Cell Repository -- where he works as manager.

"As a geneticist, it was a no-brainer for me," he said. "Placentas are normally thrown away as medical waste. But the opportunities they present (as potential treatments for deadly diseases) are fantastic. Why would we want to throw that away?"

Women who give birth at Earl K. Long Medical Center are now being asked to donate placentas to the repository, a division of Anthrogenesis Corp., for stem-cell research. In exchange, their children's names will be placed in a registry and they will have free access to stem cells of the closest match should they ever need transplants.

Anthrogenesis staffers from New Jersey were at EKL last week training labor and delivery nurses and technicians how to recover blood from placentas through the severed umbilical cord.

"You want to squeeze the placenta like you're milking a cow," said Jennifer Melick, an educator for Anthrogenesis. "The idea is to milk as much blood from the veins as possible." Rich in stem cells, that blood can be banked and potentially used in future transplants to treat a number of life-threatening diseases such as sickle cell anemia, Lou Gehrig's disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, leukemia and other cancers, to name a few.

"We're on the cutting edge," said Janet Floyd, a nurse/midwife and clinical instructor at EKL. "It's wonderful for the hospital, and it's going to be wonderful for our patients and their children who are born here. It's like a free, lifelong insurance policy."

Through an agreement with LSU Health Services Division's charity hospitals, which include EKL, Anthrogenesis is looking to recover large quantities of stem cells to bank. More than 10,000 babies are born each year in the state's 10 charity hospitals. Of those, some 1,350 babies are delivered annually at EKL.

Women who give birth at hospitals not under contract with Anthrogenesis can make a request through their doctors to donate placentas as well, said Pam Shaver, managing director. There is no charge for donating placentas; however, individuals who choose to privately bank stem cells for themselves are charged an initial fee of $895 plus an annual storage fee of $95.

Currently, recovered stem cells go to the company's biotech headquarters in New Jersey; however, a lab and cryogenic storage facility are under construction at the Louisiana Technology Park here, which could be operational as soon as the end of this year.

U.S. Rep. Richard Baker played the lead role in bringing Anthrogenesis to Louisiana. State officials and business leaders hope the repository will make Louisiana a focus of stem-cell research and therapy and be a catalyst for bringing other biotech companies here.

Each year, thousands of people develop diseases treatable with stem-cell transplants. Many are on waiting lists for bone marrow transplants but are unable to find suitable donors. Now, however, stem cells harvested from placenta and cord blood can be substituted for bone marrow.

Stem cells -- the building blocks of the immune system -- have the potential to be programmed or turned into various types of cells, such as nerve cells, liver cells or heart cells.

Embryonic stem cells have been surrounded by controversy because they are harvested from aborted fetuses or embryos. However, the harvesting of stem cells from placentas obviously has less stigma.

Initially, stem cells were harvested just from blood in the umbilical cord; however, the amount obtained was relatively small and would only be enough to treat a young child, Ragusa explained. When blood is obtained from the placenta as well, four to five times the amount can be harvested -- enough to treat two adults.

Stem cells recovered from placentas are classified as "nonadult human pluripotent and multipotent stem cells," according to information from Anthrogenesis. Pluripotent cells are capable of transforming into most tissues of an organism. Pluripotent cells undergo specialization into multipotent stem cells that are committed to particular functions. An example would be blood stem cells that can convert into red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Women who come to EKL for prenatal care will be informed about the option to donate placentas at their first visit, Floyd said. If they agree and meet donor criteria, they will be asked to sign an informed consent.

Stem cells will be collected from the placenta immediately after birth in a procedure that takes about 5 minutes to perform. From there, they will be sent to Anthrogenesis to undergo rigorous testing before being cryogenically stored. Some are banked for future transplants; others deemed not suitable for transplant are used for research.

"What drew me to Anthrogenesis was the promise of life-saving medical research and public health policy advancement but through a method that transcends ethical controversy," Baker said. "What this really means is an opportunity to harness the miracle of birth and channel it into a miracle of life."