science

National Marrow Donor Program

National Marrow Donor Program is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National Marrow Donor Program rather than just read about it. In short: NMDP, formerly known as Be The Match, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It operates a registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors and umbilical cord blood units in the United States and is under contract to operate the federally authorized C.

Key takeaways

National Marrow Donor Program belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect National Marrow Donor Program to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National Marrow Donor Program from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

NMDP, formerly known as Be The Match, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It operates a registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors and umbilical cord blood units in the United States and is under contract to operate the federally authorized C. W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program. The NMDP Registry is the world's largest of its kind, with more than 22 million registered donors and over 300,000 cord blood units. These cells are used in transplants for patients with a range of blood, bone marrow, and immune system disorders. As of June 2026, NMDP had facilitated more than 150,000 transplants worldwide.

Activities NMDP coordinates the collection of hematopoietic ("blood-forming") cells that are used to perform what used to be called bone marrow transplants, but are now more properly called hematopoietic cell transplants. Patients needing a hematopoietic cell transplant but who lack a suitably matched donor in their family can search the NMDP Registry for a matched unrelated donor or cord blood unit. Hematopoietic cells are used to transplant patients with life-threatening disorders such as leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, as well as certain immune system and metabolic disorders. Hematopoietic cells can come from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, or the circulating blood (peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs)). Hematopoietic cells are a type of adult (i.e., non-embryonic) stem cell that can multiply and differentiate into the three types of blood cells: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

Collecting hematopoietic cells Bone marrow and PBSCs come from living adult donors; they can be extracted from the bone marrow or from the blood. Bone marrow is extracted from the donor's pelvic bones while the donor is under general or local anesthesia. PBSCs are collected from the donor's blood after five or six days of taking a drug that causes hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow to move into the circulating blood. In both cases, recovery is usually swift and donors typically have fully restored marrow and blood cell counts in under two weeks. Cord blood cells are obtained from the umbilical cord and placenta of a newborn baby after the cord is clamped and cut as in a normal delivery. The cord blood is then stored frozen in a bank until needed for a transplant. The baby is not harmed in any way by this collection, as the cord blood is collected from tissues that in the past had been discarded as medical waste.

The need for large registries The NMDP Registry is one of many registries of unrelated donors and cord blood units in the world. Most large, developed nations have such registries. Large registries of unrelated donors are needed because only about 30% of patients with diseases treatable with hematopoietic cell transplantation can find a fully HLA matched donor among their family members. The remaining 70% require an unrelated hematopoietic cell donor as a transplant source. Because the odds that two random individuals are HLA matched exceeds one in 20,000, a registry's success depends on a large number of volunteer donors.

Method of operation

NMDP coordinates hematopoietic cell transplants by managing a worldwide network of affiliated organizations. These organizations (mostly hospitals and blood banks) have established relationships with the NMDP and work together to arrange the collection and transfer of donated bone marrow or PBSCs, or the transfer of previously collected cord blood. When an adult volunteer donor (marrow or PBSC) registers with the NMDP, their HLA and contact information is sent to the NMDP, which stores it in their computers. The NMDP also has nearly 238,000 cord blood units, listed by HLA type, in its registry. These cord blood units are stored at 19 NMDP-affiliated cord blood banks around the world. Physicians look for donor material on behalf of a patient by submitting the patient's HLA tissue type to NMDP, which then searches its computerized database for matching donor (marrow or PBSC) or cord blood units. If NMDP finds a match with an adult donor, they notify the donor. After educating the potential donor about the donation process, NMDP asks them to donate. If the potential donor wishes to proceed, they receive a medical exam, which includes testing the blood for infectious diseases. If the potential donor meets all requirements, NMDP collects their bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells and sends them by courier to the patient. If NMDP finds a match to a cord blood unit, they notify the cord blood bank that stores that unit and arrange to send it to the patient. Cord blood units are shipped frozen, in specially designed coolers, and are thawed after arrival at the patient's hospital. The transplant physician evaluating the patient considers a number of clinical factors to decide whether to use an adult donor's marrow or PBSC, or cord blood for a particular patient.

International connections NMDP cooperates with World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), an organization that coordinates communications among the world's registries. BMDW is based in Leiden, The Netherlands. Throughout the world, there are an estimated 30 million volunteer hematopoietic cell donors. Most national registries, including NMDP's registry, have access to these worldwide volunteer donors, either through the BMDW or through individually arranged agreements. Although based in the United States, NMDP has worldwide connections. More than 50 percent of the transplants arranged by NMDP involve either a foreign patient or a foreign donor. NMDP contracts with seven donor centers (where donors are recruited) outside of the United States. These are located in The Netherlands, Israel, Sweden, Norway, and Germany (three centers). In addition, NMDP is affiliated with many transplant centers (where patients can receive transplants using cells from NMDP donors) outside of the United States.

Other United States registries Although NMDP operates the sole federally funded and Congressionally authorized stem cell registry in the United States, another domestic registry exists.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National Marrow Donor Program

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National Marrow Donor Program claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National Marrow Donor Program before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National Marrow Donor Program ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National Marrow Donor Program

In research: National Marrow Donor Program appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National Marrow Donor Program in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National Marrow Donor Program is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1986 establishments in Minnesota, Medical and health organizations based in Minnesota, Non-profit organizations based in Minnesota, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National Marrow Donor Program outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study National Marrow Donor Program in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National Marrow Donor Program means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain National Marrow Donor Program out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is National Marrow Donor Program in simple terms?

Why does National Marrow Donor Program matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National Marrow Donor Program?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National Marrow Donor Program.