Shanghai opened its fourth haematopoietic stem cell donor databank Sunday.

Founded by the Shanghai Red Cross Society, the facility will be open to the public all year around to offer donors more convenience, said Zhang Jin, who is in charge of haematopoietic stem cell donations at the society.

According to Zhang, more than 53,000 volunteers had donated their blood samples to the Shanghai-based collection pool by the end of last month.

Correspondingly, 63 leukaemia patients had found their matching marrow.

Stem cells, which can be extracted from embryos a few days old, children and even adults, are capable of growing into any of the 300 different kinds of cell in the human body.

Isolated from the blood or bone marrow, haematopoietic stem cells are able to form blood and immune cells.

Haematopoietic stem cell transplants are now routinely used to treat patients with cancer and other disorders of the blood and immune systems.

"We are encouraging more young people to donate their bone marrow as we plan to establish a storage of 100,000 blood samples in Shanghai," said Huo Jingyi from the Shanghai Committee of the Communist Youth League, another organizer of the event.

In the first half of 2005, more than 7,000 young volunteers have given their blood samples and 17 transplants have been performed in Shanghai.

But about 500 new leukaemia patients in Shanghai need the surgery every year, Huo told China Daily yesterday.

China is home to what is probably the largest stem cell program in Asia.

Pei Xuetao, team leader of the National High Technology Research and Development Program's stem cell division, told a magazine earlier this year that China has "about 300 to 400" PhDs working on all types of stem cells in more than 30 scientific teams across the country.

In addition, China will further its cooperation with Western countries in stem cell research.

"Our cutting-edge technology, large and diverse patient population, and rich stem cell resources are attracting the world's attention," Pei, also director of the Beijing Institute of Transfusion Medicine, told China Daily.

(China Daily September 19, 2005)