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Funding the Next Generation of Transplant Research

Research is the starting point of all medical advances. Yesterday’s researchers advanced the bone marrow transplant procedure. Tomorrow’s research will help treat post-transplant complications, giving more patients a longer, healthier life.

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is dedicated to supporting research to advance the science of transplant. Our goal is to provide hope and deliver a cure to all patients in need. The Marrow Foundation^® serves the NMDP by securing private resources to sponsor outstanding young researchers doing groundbreaking work to find solutions to the serious complications that can arise after transplant.

We target researchers who are early in their careers because providing support early can encourage them to focus on post-transplant complications throughout their careers. These scholars are developing the treatment approaches that will extend the lives of the next generation of transplant patients.

For example, Dr. Stephanie Lee used the funding we provided to investigate a serious post-transplant complication called chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

Lee explains she pursued this research because she saw how great the need was: “People who are otherwise cured of their diseases and doing well become chronically ill because of this complication. And so little research actually focuses on this area.”

During her funding in 1999-2001, Lee developed a grading system for the severity of chronic GVHD and looked at how different levels of severity affected patients’ health. Today, Dr. Lee is considered an expert in GVHD and she conducts research and cares for patients in the Long-Term Follow-Up Unit at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

A special thanks

We have been able to fund this important research thanks to the family of Amy Strelzer Manasevit. Amy’s family approached the NMDP about founding a research program in her honor after she died of pneumonia following a successful transplant.

Inspired by Amy’s family, the families of Alaina Enlow and Christian Jacobsen created similar programs. Combined, they have helped raise millions of dollars and supported the groundbreaking work of more than 15 scholars and 12 post-doctoral fellows at leading academic medical centers across the country.

The Amy Strelzer Manasevit Research Program for the Study of Post-Transplant Complications

Amy Strelzer Manasevit was a vibrant young Connecticut mother who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1993. Just six weeks after returning home from a successful unrelated donor bone marrow transplant, Amy passed away from pneumonia, a common post-transplant complication.

Alaina J. Enlow Scholars Fund

Alaina J. Enlow inspired people — whether it was through her photography, her sense of humor, or her perseverance through a three-and-a-half year battle with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Alaina received two blood cell transplants donated by her older sister, Callie. The first allowed Alaina to leave the hospital, but did not achieve long-term remission. The second eliminated the cancer, but caused severe chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Less than one year after transplant, Alaina succumbed to pneumonia.

Christian Jacobsen Fund for Research

Christian Jacobsen, a 42-year-old father of three and an intensive care unit nurse, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in 2001. Without a family match, Christian turned to the NMDP Registry to find an unrelated donor and underwent a successful transplant in 2002. Unfortunately, he succumbed to a fatal infection in the post-transplant period.

Help fund the future

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