A new investigative podcast, Lost Cells, tells the story of families affected by the scandal surrounding private stem cell banks in Switzerland.
Parents around the world are investing in storing their babies’ umbilical cord blood in the hope of being able to use the cells if their children need medical treatment in the future.
When they decide to deposit their child’s stem cells in a biobank, they have to weigh up far-reaching legal, ethical and financial opportunities and risks. For example, who can use them and how, or how securely they are stored together with highly sensitive data.
The podcast focuses on the bankruptcy of the cord blood bank Cryo-Save in Switzerland and its devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of families due to the loss of life-saving cells.
This six-part audio series exposes the consequences for the health of modern societies when biobanks fail. Stem cells can transform into up to 200 types of cells in the body and, thanks to this, can be life saving for those affected by over 80 diseases.
Lost Cells is an investigative co-production by SWI swissinfo.ch with Piz Gloria Productions and Studio Ochenta.
The series sees SWI swissinfo.ch expanding its audio offering, which consists of the English-language podcast Inside Geneva, focusing on international organizations and politics; The Swiss Connection, which revolves around stories from Swiss science and research; and Geldcast, a German-language co-production on the latest developments in the international financial world.
Since 2022, SWI swissinfo.ch has been working with leading international podcast producers and investigative journalists from Brazil and France. This collaboration resulted in the Portuguese audio series O Sequestro da Amarelinha, which sheds light on the FIFA scandal, and the French podcast Dangereux Millions, which investigates criminal money laundering by Swiss banks.
Lost Cells is available now in French, Spanish and English on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
