FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Puget Sound Blood Center’s Moogk Honored

Efforts of long-time tissue-banking professional, advocate recognized

JULY 23, 2007, SEATTLE — Puget Sound Blood Center’s Margery Moogk recently received the prestigious Jeanne Mowe Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB).

The annual award goes to those who have made significant contributions in tissue banking or transplantation medicine, provided distinguished service to AATB, or demonstrated leadership qualities and shared expertise. Moogk fits all three criteria.

During her 15 years as director of the Blood Center’s Northwest Tissue Services (until recently known as Northwest Tissue Services), Moogk has championed respect for donors and their families and the equitable access to tissue for transplant; pushed for strong quality assurance requirements; worked with the FDA to develop stringent tissue banking safety regulations; and chaired AATB’s task force to bolster professional standards in order to maintain public trust in donation and transplantation.

Moogk has also been a member of AATB’s board of governors for six terms and has held numerous other prominent posts with the organization, including three terms as co-chair of the Council of Accredited Tissue Banks.

“Since the Blood Center established a tissue services program, we have been supportive of AATB’s mission to improve all aspects of tissue donation and banking: ethics, services, quality, safety,” said Moogk, a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a master’s degree in microbiology from the University of Illinois. “Our high standards and focus on quality assurance have directly influenced both AATB standards and FDA regulations.”

The Blood Center’s Northwest Tissue Services has provided more than 100,000 high-quality, safe allografts transplanted to patients throughout the country and abroad, with 90 percent going to patients in the Northwest. In addition, Tissue Services has trained tissue bankers from around the world, establishing an international reputation in the process.

About Puget Sound Blood Center
Puget Sound Blood Center is an independent, community-based regional resource recognized internationally for its research and medical and blood and tissue services. Known as the leader in transfusion medicine, Puget Sound Blood Center operates the world's largest transfusion service as well as patient-focused research programs and specialized laboratory services in support of transfusion and transplantation services. Patients with leukemia, cancer, burns, hemophilia and traumatic injuries depend on the breakthrough discoveries made by Blood Center scientists.
                                                                       
Northwest Tissue Services at Puget Sound Blood Center employs more than 50 full-time employees and provides transplant services to Washington, northern Idaho, and Montana. These include donation services to 171 regional hospitals; musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and skin allografts for transplant. The Blood Center division also includes a community cord blood bank with collections in Seattle and Hawaii, as well as an autologous peripheral blood stem cell processing service.

About AATB
American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) is a professional, non-profit, tax- exempt, scientific and educational organization founded in 1976 by a group of doctors and scientists who, in 1949, had started the United States Navy Tissue Bank, our nation’s first tissue bank. AATB is dedicated to ensuring that human tissues intended for transplantation are safe and free of infectious disease, of uniform high quality, and available in quantities sufficient to meet national needs. To fulfill that mission, since 1984, AATB has published the only authoritative industry standards for tissue banks, the AATB’s Standards for Tissue Banking.

Beginning in 1986, the AATB initiated a mandatory accreditation program for its institutional members to ensure that tissue-banking activities are performed in a professional manner in compliance with these standards. In 1988, the Association began a certification program for individuals working in tissue banking. Membership currently includes more than 1,100 individuals and 98 accredited tissue banks. These banks recover tissue from more than 25,000 donors and distribute in excess of 1.5 million allografts for transplant annually.

###