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Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research Celebrates 50 Years

April 23, 2022 Off By BusinessWire

SALT LAKE CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research® (CIBMTR®). The CIBMTR® is a research collaboration between the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP)/Be The Match® and the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW).


Cellular therapy has come a long way from its roots in the Cold War of the 1950s, from an experimental treatment for radiation sickness to a standard therapy for leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell disease. Now, cellular therapy includes both blood and marrow transplantation and other adoptive cellular therapies.

The story began in 1972, when a handful of doctors from the US, France, and the Netherlands created an international registry of transplants in order to see which therapies helped people the most. Over time, this informal alliance grew to involve many more countries and a formal research collaboration between the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP)/ Be The Match®.

Today, the CIBMTR receives data from about 350 medical centers worldwide and has analyzed clinical outcomes of 600,000 people who underwent blood and marrow transplantation. Recently, the CIBMTR expanded to include data for other cell therapies, such as chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy.

“Studies using the data from the CIBMTR’s large research database drive practice change,” said Bronwen Shaw, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Director, CIBMTR MCW. “For example, real-world evidence analyzed by the CIBMTR’s team of highly trained and expert staff paved the way for Medicare coverage of some therapies and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of others.”

“We are testing faster ways to automate data collection and sharing,” said Jeffery Auletta, MD, Chief Scientific Director, CIBMTR NMDP/Be The Match. “Promoting equitable access to cellular therapies is a top priority.”

The CIBMTR celebrates on Sunday, April 24, 2022, 8:30-10 a.m. MDT, at the 2022 Tandem Meetings I Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR. The Tandem Meetings are the combined annual meetings of the CIBMTR and the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT), a professional organization for physicians, investigators, and health care professionals. The plenary session at the Tandem Meetings will be chaired by Mary M. Horowitz, MD, MS, Scientific Director Emeritus, CIBMTR MCW, and Amy Ronneberg, CEO of NMDP/Be The Match. Topics will include:

  • The evolution of donor selection, by Stephen Spellman, MBS
  • CIBMTR precision medicine: beyond HLA, by Wael Saber, MD, MPH
  • Real-world CAR-T cell data, by Marcelo C. Pasquini, MD, MS
  • From real-world data to clinical trials, by Steven M. Devine, MD

     

About the CIBMTR

The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research is a nonprofit research collaboration between the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)/Be The Match, in Minneapolis, and the Medical College of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee. The CIBMTR collaborates with the global scientific community to increase survival and enrich quality of life for patients. The CIBMTR facilitates critical observational and interventional research through scientific and statistical expertise, a large network of centers, and a unique database of long-term clinical data for more than 600,000 people who have received hematopoietic cell transplantation and other cellular therapies. Learn more at cibmtr.org or follow the CIBMTR on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter @CIBMTR.

About the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match

The National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP)/Be The Match® is the leading global partner working to save lives through cellular therapy. With more than 30 years of experience managing the most diverse registry of potential unrelated blood stem cell donors and cord blood units in the world, NMDP/Be The Match is a proven partner in providing cures to patients with life-threatening blood and marrow cancers and diseases. Through their global network, they connect centers and patients to their best cell therapy option—from blood stem cell transplant to a next-generation therapy—and collaborate with cell and gene therapy companies to support therapy development and delivery through Be The Match BioTherapies®. NMDP/Be The Match is a tireless advocate for the cell therapy community, working with hematologists/oncologists to remove barriers to consultation and treatment, and supporting patients through no-cost programs to eliminate non-medical obstacles to cell therapy. In addition, they are a global leader in research through the CIBMTR® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research®)—a collaboration with Medical College of Wisconsin, investing in and managing research studies that improve patient outcomes and advance the future of care.

About the Medical College of Wisconsin

The Medical College of Wisconsin is dedicated to excellence in education, research, patient care and community engagement. About 1,400 medical, graduate and pharmacy school students are enrolled at MCW’s campuses in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Wausau. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In the last 10 years, faculty received more than $1.4 billion in research funding, including highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). More than 1,650 physicians provide care in almost every specialty of medicine for more than 2.6 million patients annually. Learn more at mcw.edu.

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