Those who have joined Gift of Life Marrow Registry have more than one option for helping others. We may call you someday with an invitation to donate blood cells for medical research. Participation is completely voluntary.
When you say yes, you help medical researchers and scientists discover new breakthroughs that can help people with many types of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and more.
Gift of Life partners with hospitals, research institutions, and biopharmaceutical companies to provide them with cells that have specific characteristics. Just as we need the donor and recipient to have matching tissue type for a transplant to be successful, those same matching factors may be needed for a specific line of research.
Several types of cells could be requested, depending on the research project:
Blood cells collected from healthy volunteers can be used as building blocks–also called "starter material"–that cell and gene therapy developers can use for research, or even use to create "living drugs" to treat patients battling cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
To learn more about the process for collecting these cells, please visit Step 4 of the Donation Process. Please note that most donations for research do not require donors to receive Neupogen, and the bone marrow donation section of that page does not apply; no research donors are asked to give bone marrow.
Yes! You continue as an active member of Gift of Life's registry and you have the potential to match a patient in the future and donate PBSC or bone marrow to save that person's life.