Proactive search of matching stem cell donors now available by country’s largest stem cell bank

Hyderabad: LifeCell, a global leader in Community Stem Cell Banking recently announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind service, StemMatch for its community banking members. In line with the commitment towards providing proactive healthcare services, StemMatch will now provide information on the exact number and quality of matching stem cell units available for the child and the family within the LifeCell registry - the largest repository of Indian origin stem cells. 

The success of a transplant depends on various factors including a close match between the donor and the recipient, which is determined by the HLA or human leukocyte antigen markers. A minimum of 6 out of 8 HLA markers (~75 % match) needs to be matched between the donor and the recipient for a successful blood stem cell transplant outcome. However, owing to genetic diversity in India, the chance of finding the right match varies from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 2,000,000.

StemMatch provides the exact number of high-quality 6/8, 7/8 and 8/8 matching stem cell units available for the child and the family in LifeCell’s registry every year. Community members can easily avail StemMatch either at the time of enrolment or at a later stage.  Moreover, the annual updated report ensures that the community members are well-informed about the latest matching units available. StemMatch, thus, expedites the transplantation process by reducing the critical testing and matching time but above all, it offers confidence and assurance to the members on the availability of matching units, when needed.

This matchmaking service was until now only reserved for patients who are in need of an imminent transplant. Transforming this service to make it now available as a proactive search by parent's who may not be in need of an immediate transplant, has required LifeCell to invest into advanced automations to meet the expectations, where demand of this service would increase exponentially.

Commenting on the launch of StemMatch, Mr. Mayur Abhaya, Managing Director – LifeCell said, “LifeCell has been instrumental in making innovative, life-saving stem cell-based therapies accessible to every Indian and the recent success of India’s first community dual cord blood transplant further bolsters our confidence. As an extension of our pioneering efforts in community banking wherein the registry with over 50,000 qualified and consented cord blood units ensures a greater than 97% chance of finding the right match for an Indian patient, the new launch of StemMatch will give families the confidence and satisfaction of knowing the exact number and quality of matching cord blood units available in the world’s largest repository of Indian origin stem cells, at any point during their journey with LifeCell. When it