Medical students lead effort to boost bone marrow registry

(SACRAMENTO)

Finding bone marrow donors from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups is painfully difficult - but a group of UC Davis medical students is seeking to change that.

The School of Medicine's Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) this week partnered with National Marrow Donor Program to host a successful registry drive on campus.

As a result, dozens of people, including medical students, signed up to be bone marrow donors should the need arise.

"I was hopeful that we'd have a strong turnout, since we set a goal of 50 registrants and worked hard to promote the event," said second-year medical student Linh Tran. "I was really excited when we ended up with 73 people signing up!"

APAMSA is one of many organizations students join for camaraderie, to learn more about a certain branch of medicine and participate in community service projects.

Leaders of APAMSA organized the bone marrow registry drive because of the urgent need for blood stem cell donors, said Tran, who is a service co-chair for APAMSA.

"Many patients, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, struggle to find a fully matched donor, with 70% relying on unrelated donors for survival," she explained.

Students who signed up for the registry, she added, were motivated by realizing that the complexity of genetics makes it hard to find matching donors from certain ethnic and racial backgrounds.

UC Davis Health employees, students and others registered with the National Marrow Donor Program outside the Education Building.

A blood stem cell transplant - also called a bone marrow transplant - can treat more than 75 diseases according to the national registry. Among the most common are different types of leukemia.

The drive, held on Wednesday, was designed to offer registration opportunities in a simple, accessible and lively manner.

Students were offered free boba and goodies for approaching the organization's tables, courtesy of grants from the national APAMSA group that oversees student groups, and from the National Marrow Donor Program.

Participants lined up to complete an online survey and provide a swab from their cheek. The swab was then processed to determine donor compatibility for the registry.

In addition to the sign-ups that took place outside the Education Building, additional people took the registry kit to complete the process from home.

"There's a common misconception that it's a painful process, but in reality, most donations involve giving blood stem cells through a procedure similar to donating plasma," said An Tran, another student organizer.

"As someone from an underserved background, this event really hit close to home."

She added: "It reminded me of the importance of community and advocacy work in addressing health disparities. I'm motivated to keep building on this effort and hope to continue supporting initiatives like this in the future."

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