May 12–17, 2017 in Cologne

Together with the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), the Cellex Academy invited in 2017 to a workshop aimed to stem cell donor organizations. Coming from almost every continent guests from donor file and registry institutions, transplantation centers and sampling clinics traveled to Cologne.

The speakers also came from all over the world: Chennai (India), Washington D.C. and Minnea-polis (USA), Leiden (Netherlands), London (UK), Singapore and Dresden, Tübingen, Ulm and Co-logne.

Lectures on the work of well-known donor files such as DATRI (India), BMDP (Singapore), NMDP (USA), Anthony Nolan (UK), Matchis (Netherlands), the Stefan Morsch Foundation, the DKMS and the ZKRD should help new organizations, to build up their processes safely.
Central questions were discussed and answered with illustrative presentations:

• How does a donor file get donors?
• How do you motivate donors to keep in contact for a long time?
• How to improve the strategies for finding the right donor for a patient?
• What challenges does this search face in the future?
• How to get a high quality stem cell product?
• How to ensure the safe and speedy transport of stem cell products? As a rule, there is not much time left for the path of the stem cell product to the sick patient. For this, high standards must be worked out and adhered to.

In addition to the lectures and discussions, the workshop participants had the opportunity to accompany the stem cell donation as part of a "training on the job". The international guests took part in preliminary donor visits, in the apheresis unit, in bone marrow collections and at other Cellex Medical Services.

The Cellex Foundation took over the coordination of the workshop as well as the travel expenses for the speakers. The event rooms were provided as well. On a participant fee was waived. Additionally five travel grants were awarded in advance so that organizations with limited financial resources could participate in the workshop.