About 97 percent of the time, the blood inside a newborn baby’s umbilical cord is thrown away after the cord is cut.

But, if a new mom opts to save her baby’s cord blood, its stem cells can actually be used to reconstitute an immune system for someone who has cancer or any one of 80 different life-threatening diseases.

Charis Ober, the executive director of the Save the Cord Foundation here in Arizona, is helping to organize a conference taking place this weekend — along with the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Arizona Public Cord Blood Program — to talk about the scientific and life-saving potential of what is usually seen as medical waste.