World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) is an organization based in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, that coordinates the collection of the HLA phenotypes and other relevant data of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors (used to perform what used to be called bone marrow transplants, but now referred to as hematopoietic cell transplants) and

cord blood Cord blood (umbilical cord blood) is blood that remains in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord after childbirth. Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells, which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders s ...

units across the globe. The global database with volunteer donors was founded in the Netherlands in 1988. Today, the Search & Match Service of WMDA is the world's largest hematopoietic cell database, listing more than 38 million stem cell donors and over 800,000 cord blood units. WMDA participants consist of 75 hematopoietic cell donor registries from 53 countries, and 53 cord blood banks from 36 countries. For further details on the number of

Donors A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as r ...

/Cord Blood Units (CBU) per registry within the WMDA databas
click here
These global hematopoietic cells from donors or cord blood units are used to transplant patients around the world with a variety of life-threatening blood disorders such as

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...

, aplastic anemia, as well as certain

immune system The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splint ...

and

metabolic disorder A metabolic disorder is a disorder that negatively alters the body's processing and distribution of macronutrients, such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Metabolic disorders can happen when abnormal chemical reactions in the body alter t ...

External links

World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA)

World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD)
{{authority control Transplant organizations International medical associations International medical and health organizations International organisations based in the Netherlands Medical and health organisations based in the Netherlands