Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue found within the spongy portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production. It is composed of hematopoietic cells, marrow adipose tissue, and supportive stromal cells. In adult humans, bone marrow is primarily located in the ribs, vertebrae, sternum, and bones of the pelvis. Bone marrow comprises approximately 5% of total body mass in healthy adult humans, such that a man weighing 73 kg (161 lbs) will have around 3.7 kg (8 lbs) of bone marrow.
A blood donation occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions and/or made into biopharmaceutical medications by a process called fractionation. A donation may be of whole blood, or of specific components directly (apheresis). Blood banks often participate in the collection process as well as the procedures that follow it.
Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood, in order to replicate inside a patient and produce additional normal blood cells. HSCT may be autologous, syngeneic, or allogeneic.
Lambda Phi Epsilon is the largest Asian-American-Interest fraternity in North America. Lambda Phi Epsilon is affiliated with the National APIDA Panhellenic Association, and is a former member of the North American Interfraternity Conference.
A cord blood bank is a facility which stores umbilical cord blood for future use. Both private and public cord blood banks have developed in response to the potential for cord blood in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems. Public cord blood banks accept donations to be used for anyone in need, and as such function like public blood banks. Traditionally, public cord blood banking has been more widely accepted by the medical community. Private cord blood banks store cord blood solely for potential use by the donor or donor's family. Private banks typically charge around $2,000 for the collection and around $200 a year for storage.
Plateletpheresis is the process of collecting thrombocytes, more commonly called platelets, a component of blood involved in blood clotting. The term specifically refers to the method of collecting the platelets, which is performed by a device used in blood donation that separates the platelets and returns other portions of the blood to the donor. Platelet transfusion can be a life-saving procedure in preventing or treating serious complications from bleeding and hemorrhage in patients who have disorders manifesting as thrombocytopenia or platelet dysfunction. This process may also be used therapeutically to treat disorders resulting in extraordinarily high platelet counts such as essential thrombocytosis.
Anthony Nolan is a UK charity that works in the areas of leukaemia and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It manages and recruits donors to the Anthony Nolan Register, which is part of an aligned registry that also includes the Welsh Bone Marrow Donor Registry, NHS Blood and Transplant's British Bone Marrow Registry and Deutsche KnochenMarkSpenderdatei (DKMS) UK. This aligned register is known as the Anthony Nolan & NHS Stem Cell Registry. It also carries out research to help make bone marrow transplants more effective.
Mid-America Christian University (MACU) is a private Christian university in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. MACU is an endorsed agency of the Church of God and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. MACU was initially founded as the South Texas Bible Institute in 1953 in Houston Heights, Houston, Texas.
Transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GvHD) is a rare complication of blood transfusion, in which the immunologically competent donor T lymphocytes mount an immune response against the recipient's lymphoid tissue. These donor lymphocytes engraft, recognize recipient cells as foreign and mount an immune response against recipient tissues. Donor lymphocytes are usually identified as foreign and destroyed by the recipient's immune system. However, in situations where the recipient is severely immunocompromised, or when the donor and recipient HLA type is similar, the recipient's immune system is not able to destroy the donor lymphocytes. This can result in transfusion associated graft-versus-host disease. This is in contrast with organ/tissue transplant associated GvHD, where matching HLA reduces the incident of the complication.
Jay Feinberg is a long-term leukemia survivor, community organizer and founder and current CEO of the Gift of Life Marrow Registry.
NMDP, formerly known as the National Marrow Donor Program and Be The Match, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that operates a registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors and umbilical cord blood units in the United States.
The New York Blood Center (NYBC) is a community, nonprofit blood bank based in New York City. Established in 1964 by Dr. Aaron Kellner, NYBC supplies blood to approximately 200 hospitals in the Northeast United States. NYBC and its operating divisions also provide transfusion-related medical services to over 500 hospitals nationally.
Founded in 1962, America's Blood Centers (ABC) is an association of independent non-profit blood centers that operates in Canada and the United States. ABC member organizations operate more than 600 blood collection sites providing close to 60 percent of the U.S., and a quarter of the Canadian, blood supply. These blood centers serve more than 150 million people and provide blood products and services to more than 3,500 hospitals and healthcare facilities across North America. All ABC U.S. members are licensed and regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Kate Fry, MBA, CAE, currently leads the organization as Chief Executive Officer.
The Gift of Life Marrow Registry is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 and headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida that operates a public blood stem cell and bone marrow registry while facilitating transplants for children and adults battling life-threatening illnesses, including leukemia, lymphoma, other cancers and genetic diseases.
Michelle Kim Maykin was a well-known figure in the Asian American community who promoted ethnic participation in the national marrow registry, the National Marrow Donor Program. Suffering from acute myeloid leukemia herself, she began a personal search for a bone marrow donor and began the internationally noted campaign, Project Michelle, which registered more than 18,000 people and led to bone marrow matches and donations for 62 different patients. Unable to find a match herself, she died on July 25, 2009.
Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei, abbreviated as DKMS, is an international nonprofit bone marrow donor center based in Tübingen, Germany, with entities in Chile, India, Poland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. DKMS works in the areas of blood cancer and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and raises awareness of the need for donors for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation which people with blood cancers need for treatment as well as helping people sign up to their national bone marrow registries. Over the years, DKMS has expanded beyond Germany.
Amal Bishara is an Israeli Arab doctor, and the director of Bone Marrow Registry Outreach, Hadassah Medical Center, which is associated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. There she runs the only bone marrow transplant registry in the world for unrelated Arab donors. Dr. Amal has published and presented internationally on her research into immunogenetics. She serves on the Accreditation Committee of the European Federation for Immunogenetics.
DATRI is a not-for-profit organization registered in 2009 as a Section 8 company under Government of India. DATRI is one of the largest unrelated blood stem cell donors registry in India, that helps patients with blood cancer and other fatal blood disorders to find a HLA matched Blood Stem Cell donor. Blood stem cell transplant is a chance of cure for patients with blood cancer and other severe blood disorders. As of January 2023, DATRI has more than 5 lakhs voluntary donors registered and it has facilitated 1074 plus transplants worldwide. DATRI operates across India.
African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) is an independent UK charity for people with leukaemia and other life-threatening disorders. The ACLT aims to raise awareness on stem cell, blood and organ donation in the UK, with a particular focus on black and mixed race communities.
