TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Tissue Bank Is Doubling Size

ADVERTISEMENT

By MICHAEL SASSO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2008

TAMPA - A nonprofit group that collects organs, skin and bone tissue from the deceased and transports them to needy patients will build a new $26.5 million tissue bank in the Brandon area.

There, LifeLink Foundation staff will process bone tissue and ligament tissue into smaller grafts that can be transplanted into patients, many of whom lose bone tissue because of cancer, traumatic accidents and spinal surgery, LifeLink spokeswoman Jennifer Krouse said Thursday.

LifeLink will build a 60,000-square-foot tissue bank in the Crosstown Center business park off Falkenburg Road. It will replace LifeLink's existing tissue bank off Waters Avenue in Tampa, which is half the size of the new facility. Construction of the new building won't be finished until 2010, Krouse said, but its completion should let the tissue bank add 20 employees to its current staff of 85.

LifeLink also has an organ transplant facility on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, across from Tampa General Hospital.

Last year, the LifeLink tissue bank fashioned bone tissue into 40,000 smaller tissue grafts for transplant.

"One tissue donor could potentially impact the lives of 50 other people with much smaller grafts," Krouse said.

From Tampa, the tissue bank serves western and Southwest Florida, Georgia and Puerto Rico.

To pay for the new building, LifeLink is issuing up to $25 million in tax-exempt bonds.

A public agency called the Hillsborough County Industrial Development Authority is facilitating issuing the bonds so they can get tax-exempt status, but LifeLink will be responsible for repaying them, development authority attorney Tom Morrison said.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at msasso@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7865.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT