January 2010 marked the 30th anniversary of the first bone marrow transplant at UI Hospitals and Clinics.

Since then 2,573 patients have received transplants using:

• Related, matched bone marrow or blood stem cells
• Unrelated, matched donor bone marrow, blood stem cells, or cord blood stem cells

Of those patients, more than 2,000 were adults and 550 were children. Currently, about 100 children and adults receive stem cell transplants every year

An integral part of the transplant program, particularly in the earlier years when pioneering work was done using stem cells from unrelated donors, is the Iowa Marrow Donor Program, which started in 1984 as the world's first bone marrow registry.

Transplant program

Learn how you can become a marrow donor:
Iowa Marrow Donor Program