BioBridge Global Introduces BBG Advanced Therapies: New Subsidiary to Support the Development of Cell and Gene Therapies

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About Us

The BioBridge Global family of nonprofits includes South Texas Blood & Tissue, QualTex Laboratories, BBG Advanced Therapies and The Blood & Tissue Center Foundation. For 50 years, we have worked with the healthcare community to provide lifesaving therapies to patients and to support advances in advanced therapies. 

South Texas Blood & Tissue supplies blood components to more than 100 hospitals in South Texas and supports tissue, umbilical cord blood and birth tissue donations.

QualTex Laboratories screens millions of blood and plasma donations every year and provides other biological testing for national and international biomedical customers. 

BBG Advanced Therapies delivers a fully integrated and custom portfolio of innovative solutions, including collection and processing of starting materials, testing and manufacturing services that bring transformative therapies to patients across the globe

The Blood & Tissue Center Foundation raises awareness and funds to support the lifesaving activities of BioBridge Global.

Leadership

Commitment to Quality

Our Mission:

To save and enhance lives through the healing power of human cells and tissue.

Concern for local patients in the 1970s helped launch the organization that would become BioBridge Global.

BioBridge Global History

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Members of the Bexar County Medical Society, led by Dr. Robert Gossett, decide San Antonio should have a locally based blood bank, one that could respond more quickly to patient needs.
The South Texas Regional Blood Bank opens its doors in a small facility in downtown San Antonio.
With the donation of a new motor home adapted for blood donations, the blood bank begins welcoming donors at local shopping centers.
The South Texas Regional Blood Bank moves into a larger building on San Pedro Avenue and names it in honor of Gossett.
Dr. Norman Kalmin joins the blood bank as Medical Director. He will go on to serve the organization for 31 years as Medical Director, Chief Executive Officer, and President/CEO of QualTex Laboratories.
The center purchases the historic YWCA building in downtown San Antonio and, following renovations, moves there in 1984.
Be The Cure, Be The Match marrow registry drive at UTRGV
The South Texas Regional Blood bank joins the National Marrow Donor Program registry program and begins collecting umbilical cord blood.
The blood bank moves into its current facility on Interstate 10 West and changes its name to the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center to reflect its newly expanded mission into posthumous tissue collection.
STBTC becomes the first North American blood and tissue center to achieve ISO 9000 certification.
The Blood & Tissue Center Foundation is formed to provide financial support to the blood bank’s expanding programs.
The Texas Cord Blood Bank, authorized and funded by the Texas Legislature, opens as a registry and depository for umbilical cord blood donations, which began in 1998.
QualTex Laboratories is formed to handle testing of blood and plasma donations in San Antonio, Texas.
The South Texas Blood & Tissue Center opens the Donor Pavilion as a new location for blood donors and the center’s staff.
The center becomes an official peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) collection center to help streamline the search service for patients and donors.
GenCure is formed to support regenerative medicine and cellular therapies.
QualTex launches a facility in Norcross, Georgia, to serve testing customers in the South and East Coast.
BioBridge Global is created to serve as the parent organization for the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center, QualTex Laboratories, GenCure and The Blood & Tissue Center Foundation.
The blood center welcomes its 1 millionth donor.
GenCure’s biomanufacturing facility opens, offering large-scale expansion of adult stem cells and expertise to advanced therapies customers around the world. QualTex expands into testing services for adult stem cells.
Testing for Advanced Therapies
QualTex Laboratories launches testing services for advanced therapies.
Community Labs testing
After just eight weeks of preparation, Community Labs is launched to provide fast, accurate and inexpensive COVID tests to schools and businesses across South Texas. BioBridge Global operates the laboratory in the BBG Headquarters Building.
Apheresis donor chairs
The South Texas Blood & Tissue Apheresis Center obtains accreditation from the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy, which sets worldwide standards for care in cellular therapy.
All of Us Research Program logo
South Texas Blood & Tissue announces its partnership with the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, to recruit and engage participants in one of the nation’s largest and most diverse health information databases.
BioBridge Global 50th Anniversary logo
BioBridge Global celebrates 50 years of service to the community.

Meet Valentina

Valentina is alive and happy today because of multiple donors. Diagnosed with a rare blood disorder as a baby, she needed numerous transfusions to battle her condition – then a cord blood transplant to beat it.
Building connections to make a lasting impact.
BioBridge Global in the Community