Our Cause

Transformative new options are emerging in the fight against cancer.

Join us at the 2025 Red & White Ball to help make these groundbreaking treatments more accessible for patients in San Antonio and South Texas.

ACCESS TO LIFESAVING ADVANCED THERAPIES

Advanced Therapies, also known as cell and gene therapies, are transforming the treatment of cancer and other conditions. These groundbreaking treatments start with one thing – human cells, collected from the blood of patients or donors. But there’s a problem:

• Few centers are accredited and equipped to collect these cells.

• San Antonio trails other major Texas cities in access to cell and gene therapies.

• Many patients must travel for hours – or miss out entirely on the lifesaving options.

The lack of infrastructure also limits access to clinical trials for advanced therapies. Less than 10% of patients in oncology clinical trials are Latino – a gap we must close.

Bringing Advanced Therapies Closer to Home

In 2024, South Texas Blood & Tissue’s nonprofit parent, BioBridge Global, established BBG Advanced Therapies to support new cell and gene therapies.

In 2025, BBG Advanced Therapies is launching the first-ever mobile leukapheresis (cell collection) center to increase our capacity to support patient treatment and research.

This year’s Red & White Ball will help fund a second mobile center, to improve access to lifesaving cell therapies for patients in San Antonio and across South Texas.

More than a decade later, she is cancer-free, and she and her parents have become advocates for the use of advanced therapies for childhood cancers.

  • More than a 20 cellular therapies have been approved for use in the United States.

  • New therapies include treatments for blood cancers and metastatic melanoma

  • Research is underway on advanced therapies for a wide range of conditions, including autoimmune conditions, diabetes and more.

When traditional chemotherapy failed to cure Emily Whitehead’s leukemia, her parents turned to a clinical trial that used her own cancer-fighting cells – one of the first therapies of its kind. In 2012, she became the first pediatric patient to receive CAR-T cell therapy – and it worked.

The Blood & Tissue Center Foundation supports the lifesaving work of San Antonio-based nonprofit biomedical organization BioBridge Global (BBG) and its subsidiaries, South Texas Blood & Tissue, QualTex Laboratories, and BBG Advanced Therapies. It seeks to raise community awareness and develop financial and other resources that support BBG’s mission to help save and enhance lives through the healing power of human cells and tissue.