For Patients and Families

Welcome to the University of Minnesota Division of Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program Web Site.   This site will provide you with:

• Detailed descriptions of programs
• Ongoing research (clinical and laboratory)
• BMT Inpatient Unit
• Related services: Care Partners, Social Work, Child Family Life Services
• A Home Away From Home
• Faculty and staff

The University of Minnesota is an internationally respected pioneer in the area of blood and marrow transplantation (BMT).  The first successful human bone marrow transplant was performed at the University of Minnesota in 1968.  In a young child with severe combined immunodeficiency, and since then over 4700 transplants have been performed. In addition, University of Minnesota investigators have led the field with other “firsts” including the first transplant to treat a patient with lymphoma (1975), the first transplant to treat an inherited metabolic disease (1982), the world’s first umbilical cord blood transplant for leukemia (1990), the first multi-unit umbilical cord blood transplant (2000) and the first use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to ensure healthy HLA matched sibling donor for a child with Fanconi anemia. Our clinical program is recognized as one of the largest unrelated donor transplant programs in the country, and largest umbilical cord blood transplant center for adults and children worldwide. 

Pediatric BMT researchers continue to break new ground in the areas of alternative stem cell therapies, cord blood transplantation, genetic engineering to reduce the side effects of BMT and potentially to treat disease, and immune based therapies. 

Our faculty and staff are committed to education, for the next generation of health care providers as well as to patients and their families and the general public.