Bone Marrow and Stem Cells
Join The Registry
I Joined The Registry...
If you have joined the Bone Marrow Registry add yourself to the "I Joined" list and let others know you have made a difference.
Click here to sign the"I Joined" guestbook
Here are the last few people that signed the guestbook:
I Joined!
shravanthi gadi
brampton, TORONTO
Joined 2013
charanjeet singh
ludhiana, PUNJAB
Joined 2012 (1 year)
"i want to join for this for helping other peoples"
Manmeet Singh
Kitchener, ONTARIO
Joined 2008 (5 years)
Michelle Moison
Belle River, ONTARIO
Joined 2009 (4 years)
"Katelyn and her family were my inspiration for joining the registry. "
Tania Farah
Windsor, ONTARIO
Joined 2012 (1 year)
a complete list.
* People listed with a butterfly icon show that they were inspired to join the Bone Marrow Registry after visiting this website.
Video
Our YouTube video provides some basic information about the bone marrow registry and why it is critical that people of all ethnic backgrounds join the registry today.
Photos
Click any photo to view a larger size or check out our photo group HERE.
Twibbon
Help support our cause by adding this button to your website, blog, Twitter, or Facebook account.
Research
Research Sponsorship Program
Research is the key to finding better treatment options for bone marrow transplant patients. Researchers around the world are looking for ways to provide more hope to patients that require a bone marrow transplant:
- Improved bone marrow transplant procedures aimed at minimizing the risk of life threatening complications such as infection and graft vs. host disease
- Alternative sources of stem cells such as umbilical cord blood
- Partial-match (haploidentical) stem cell transplants
- Better ways of matching bone marrow donors to patients
The Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association sponsors bone marrow transplant related research taking place in Canadian universities and hospitals. We are always looking for new projects to sponsor. If you are a researcher working in a Canadian university or hospital, contactus today to find out how we can contribute to your project at info@givemarrow.net.
KBBMA Sponsors Stem Cell Research at University of Windsor
Earlier this year, Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association donated $5,000 to the Lisa Porter Research Fund at University of Windsor to help Dr. Lisa Porter and her team research environmental impacts on stem cell development. Dr. Porter and her group are doing cutting edge work and we are proud to support this project. We are confident the results of this work will be of benefit to stem cell transplant patients among others in years to come.
Dr. Porter has provided the following synopsis of her work and how it relates to stem cell transplantation:
"Hematopoietic, or blood forming, stem cells (HSCs) are immature cells capable of maturing into all forms of mature blood cells. HSCs are found in the bone marrow, bloodstream and umbilical cord blood at differing levels. Transplantation of these cells is hampered by the high cell dose required for engraftment. Clinical results in children have clearly shown that the number of stem cells infused during transplantation is correlated closely to the speed of recovery after chemotherapy. Learning how to effectively grow, or expand, HSCs in the laboratory would be an exceptionally valuable tool, enabling us to optimize engraftment using all sources and using limited pools of HSCs. In order to do this we must first identify the factors that regulate how these cells maintain their stem cell properties and what triggers them to become mature blood cells."
"With support from the KBBMA the Porter Lab at the University of Windsor will characterize the role of a central set of proliferative factors in maintaining stem like growth and allowing for effective expansion of HSCs in the laboratory. The factors that will be initially focused on have been previously identified by the Porter group and others as being very important in maintaining stemness in other stem cell populations. In addition to optimizing conditions by which we could expand HSCs in the laboratory, this work may also provide essential basic science information valuable in the diagnosis and treatment of specific forms of leukemia and/or lymphoma"
For additional information see:
We hope to continue supporting this project on an ongoing basis. Thank you to our generous supporters for making this sponsorship possible!
KBBMA Sponsors Research at University of Montreal
In 2007, the Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association was pleased to make a contribution of five thousand dollars to the research project conducted by Dr. Claude Perreault of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the University of Montreal. Dr. Perreault and his team have identified 17 genes that indicate that a candidate bone marrow donor may be "dangerous" in terms of causing graft vs. host disease (GVHD) in the receiving patient following the transplant.
GVHD is a serious, some times fatal complication of bone marrow transplants. According to the National Marrow Donor Program, "In GVHD, the immune cells from the donated marrow or cord blood (the graft) attack the body of the transplant patient (the host). GVHD can affect many different parts of the body. The skin, eyes, stomach and intestines are affected most often. GVHD can range from mild to life-threatening." Dr. Perreault is working to develop a simple test to screen candidate donors prior to being selected to determine if they would put the recipient at a higher risk for GVHD.
Dr. Claude Perreault is the Principal Investigator, Immunobiology Laboratory, Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer. He is also a Full Professor, Department of Medicine, Université de Montréal and a Hematologist, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. He is currently the Canada Research Chair in Immunobiology. Additional information about Dr. Perreault and his work can be found here:
The Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association will continue to support Dr. Perreault's research on an ongoing basis. This is only possible thanks to the help of our generous supporters. If you would like to make a donation, follow the link on our ways you can help page.