ABOUT DATRI

Dr. Nezih Cereb and Dr. Soo Young Yang are the founders of Histogenetics, a laboratory that performs high-resolution HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) typing. Histogenetics worked with some Indian hospitals to perform the HLA typing for patients who have leukemia or fatal blood disorders. Their only chance to survive was a stem cell transplant, and if no donor was available in the family, an unrelated donor vis needed. Both of them were well aware of the shortage of HLA-matched, unrelated Indian donors as there was no registry in India.

They saw an urgent need for a donor registry in India and teamed up with an enterprising entrepreneur. This entrepreneur had a friend whose friend’s fiancée was of Indian origin. She could not find an HLA match in the US registry or other international registries, which was the turning point. He assisted in conducting awareness campaigns in the US amongst the Indian community to register them as potential blood stem cell donors. When he moved back to India, he became aware that it was almost impossible to find an unrelated donor for patients of Indian origin.

The three of them then founded an Unrelated Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry in India to meet the increasing demand for blood stem cell donors. Histogenetics supported the installation and functioning of the registry. Histogenetic (India) Private Limited was generous in providing office space to DATRI free of cost to run its project office in Chennai in the early days. They have also helped DATRI design the software required to run the registry’s operations and its maintenance. They have provided a long-term interest-free loan towards the high-resolution HLA typing costs of all the donors who register with DATRI. Other forms of invaluable support have been mentoring and advising on developing a registry at par excellence.

Through systematic donor drives, DATRI seeks to build awareness and enroll potential Blood Stem Cell Donors. For a successful Blood Stem Cell Transplant, the patients’ genetic typing (HLA Typing – redirect to HLA page) needs to closely match with that of the donor. Every patient has a 25% chance of finding a match within the family. However, the rest of the patients do not find a suitable donor within the family. In such cases, there is a need to find an Unrelated Blood Stem Cell Donor or a Cord Blood Unit. Donor registries work towards creating a diverse database where the search of a life-saving donor meets a match. There are over 80 Blood Stem Cell Donors Registries & more than 30 Million registered Blood Stem Cell Donors across the globe, with a very few Indians being a part of it. This reduces the chances of finding a possible match for a patient of Indian origin. India is in real need of a functional registry with donors belonging to diverse ethnic backgrounds. A patient is more likely to find a possible match within his/her race/ethnicity, (i.e.) with people sharing the same cultural linguistic, biological traits etc.