We just collected giraffe blood to try to grow stem cells for the 1st time in a giraffe!

Jan 16, 2017

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We just collected giraffe blood to try to grow stem cells for the 1st time in a giraffe!                 
 
 
Our giraffe donor voluntarily stood in a large stall while we collected blood from her neck. We will now try to grow stem cells from this sample. If it works, we will use these cells to treat arthritis in one of our giraffe.
This is the first step of the crowdfunding project you helped fund in November. Thanks for being part of such exciting work that can help our Zoo help giraffe. And thank you Amy, Diana, Kayla, Jeremy, and Rick for all your amazing giraffe training!

Liviu, Meghan, and 15 others like this.

5 comments

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Marie E WilfongBacker

So glad to see the giraffe project moving forward...very interesting post! Hope you see success in this effort.

Jan 17, 20170

Marie PoyzerBacker

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Jan 16, 20170

Kevin KrattBacker

Good Luck! Super proud of you and your team's work Liza!!

Jan 16, 20171

Ronnie HatcherBacker

Small steps for great rewards. May your patients always respond well.

Jan 16, 20171

Meghan HayesBacker

Congratulations!

Jan 16, 20171

About This Project

Help us pioneer stem cell therapy for giraffe!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Arthritis is common in geriatric giraffe. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is uniquely suited to help find better arthritis treatments, as we have a large herd of 16 giraffe that are trained for voluntary blood draws. Funding this project would allow us to grow stem cells from giraffe blood samples and then use stem cell therapy for a geriatric giraffe. The giraffe will be monitored with bloodwork and thermal imaging to determine if stem cells can help decrease inflammation.