SABMR – South African Bone Marrow Registry

We work closely with The South African Bone Marrow Registry which is the HUB centre for Africa and is responsible for processing requests for haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) from unrelated donors emanating locally and from abroad. The initiative to establish the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) was taken by Professor Ernette du Toit and Professor Peter Jacobs in 1991. The SABMR is now accepted as a full participant in the world-wide programme, having provided donors to local patients as well as international patients.

 Because of the rare HLA (tissue typing) antigens, particularly in patients of African ancestry, it was important to establish a South African registry. The SABMR, which has operated within the Laboratory for Tissue Immunology since its inception, is a member of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) and has been designated the HUB centre for South Africa.

As HUB centre, the SABMR is responsible for co-ordinating the provision of HLA matched unrelated bone marrow donors for patients in the whole of South Africa and is the point of contact for all countries seeking unrelated donors in South Africa.

HLA typings of South African donors are submitted by the SABMR to the Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (BMDW) organisation – Leiden, The Netherlands. Membership of this organisation provides access to the database on-line via the internet to subscribing registries including the SABMR.

The Laboratory for Tissue Immunology (LTI) in Cape Town, which provides a comprehensive HLA typing service to the SABMR, has been accredited by the European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI) as an HLA typing centre for unrelated bone marrow transplantation. It is the African continent’s first laboratory to receive this prestigious accreditation certificate.