First we have to talk about the lineup of some of the top stem cell companies in the market. When investors talk about stem cells, we hear mentions of companies like Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) which is a six hundred and thirty million cap company.  Osiris Therapeutics (NASDAQ:OSIR) has a four hundred and seventy four million cap.  StemCells, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEM) has a hundred and eighty-three million cap.  Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTM), is another one, they have nearly a seventy million cap.  Which one of those has earned a dollar? Where is the profit?

In the same sector, we find Cryo-cell- a nicely profitable company. They have plenty of revenue from cellular processing and cryogenic storage, with a focus on the preservation of umbilical cord blood stem cells for family use. They have only a twenty three million cap (sixteen million cap when we first talked about them at the beginning of August) yet it’s the cheapest in the whole group and their float is very small. The stock runs up on very little volume. Yet, this company has been almost completely off the radar, but as soon as this sector starts to heat up, investors- and perhaps more importantly, investment bankers- are going to recognize it.  This could be a fifty, sixty, maybe a hundred million cap.

Curiousity about this intersting investment opportunity led me to interview Mercedes A. Walton, who serves as the company's Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer. The following is a transcription of our recent discussion.

BioMedReports:  Mercedes, why don’t you start at the beginning and tell us how you became involved with the company.

Mercedes Walton: "Certainly, well, I’ve been involved with Cryo-cell actually for nine years.  I joined the board in 2000, and I was the director until 2002, and in 2003, I assumed the operating role of Chairman and CEO.  This has been an incredibly exciting opportunity to work with Cryo-cell.  The core business has been and cryo-preservation, stem cells harvested from umbilical cord blood at birth, and Cry-cell was actually the first and most established of the cord blood banks that have actually begun operating.  We incorporated in 1989 and began operation on 1992, and today, we have nearly 185,000 clients worldwide. 

"We have a network of global affiliates that have licensed the technology, and we received, in many instances, up-front licensing fees, and we, in turn, provide a turn-key operation, and we also collect royalties from the processing and storage of the stem cells.  So, we have a very strong distance that this large base of clients is lucrative on many dimensions.  They’re loyal clients.  They’re committed to Cryo-cell.  They believe in our brand.  Many of them are repeat clients, so a large portion of our business, perhaps over a third, comes to us from existing clients and referrals that they make. 

"So, in November, 2007, we announced the launch of a new service, and this new service was based on a discovery that was made by Cryo-cell, and we’ve named the service C'elle, and we have an expansive IT portfolio pending around the technology, but we have a high confidence that we will be the only company that will offer this service, a proprietary service, that basically allows women to collect and harvest their own stem cells from their menstrual fluid, and these stem cells are nothing less than remarkable in that they actually have markers that are the same markers that those stem cells harvested from bone marrow possess, but they also have markers that are also embryonic stem cell markers, that make them very unique, and also suggest that the cells are a bit more immature than adult stem cells, and we know that the stem cells are highly prolific, they reproduce themselves, on average, every twenty-four hours, and we have demonstrated their capability to many other cell types in the body, including cardiac, neural, bone, and we also have reason to believe that the cells can potentially become another cell type in the body.

"So, the cell, the C'elle, and the company Cry-cell’s proprietary technology is so compelling to stem cell researchers around the world that we have been able to establish a universal business model, that has been the for a collaborations research partner sponsors the research and development a hundred percent, and anything that emerges from therapeutic applications that the partner may develop is split fifty fifty between Cryo-cell and the prospective partner. 

"So, to date, we actually have different applications we’re working on with research partners, and they’re very impressive research partners, for example, in diabetes, we’re working Dr. Camilla Recordy at the University of Miami, who is a world-renowned stem cell researcher in diabetes, and we’re working with Dr. Paul Sandberg at the University of Florida, who has demonstrated that, when injected with into laboratory rats triggered with stroke, the C'elle stem cells actually reverse the  his findings were presented late in 2008 to the Conference of Neuroscientists in Atlanta, and we are very, very excited about that work. 

"We are working with NIH in a collaboration on a breast cancer model cells, like stem cells, have the capability to hone in to the site of injury.  Potentially use these as a therapeutic agent to carry the chemotherapy treatment directly to the site of breast cancer, so that’s a very exciting development.  We’re looking at a company called Engeneter, which is looking at the cells for vascular regeneration so critical to many other diseases.  We recently had an announcement about our research and development collaboration agreement with nationally recognized wound specialist, Dr.Robert J. Snyder and the Snyder Wound Research Institute LLC in Tamarac, FL. That partnership will allow Dr.