DATRI Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry

DATRI was founded in 2009 as a not-for-profit organisation to give patients with blood cancers, thalassaemia, aplastic anaemia, sickle cell anaemia and other blood disorders access to unrelated donors. Its account: its founders knew of the shortage of HLA-matched unrelated Indian donors, there being no registry in India at the time, and with an entrepreneur whose friend's fiancée of Indian origin had found no match on the US or other registries they set up an unrelated donor registry in India. Histogenetics supported its installation, gave it office space in Chennai in its early years, helped design its software, and provided a long-term interest-free loan for high-resolution HLA typing of donors. DATRI notes that over 80 registries worldwide hold more than 30 million donors, with very few Indians among them.