About SAMI 

What is the problem?

People with blood cancer and other blood diseases can be cured with a donation of healthy stem cells to replace their damaged cells. However, the donor and patient's tissue types must match closely, which makes it difficult for patients to find a suitable donor. Usually, a good match is found within the same ethnic community, so a South Asian patient with leukemia will need a stem cell transplant from a South Asian donor. Donors are found for patients in one of the national stem cell registries, which hold nearly 12.5 million potential donors. Unfortunately, South Asians only account for 3% of the entire registry, making it difficult for South Asian patients to find a donor, and causing hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. 

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We started SAMI with a focus on South Asians, but other ethnic groups are under-represented as well. It's just as difficult for the African American, East Asian, Native American, and Hispanic Populations.  We hope to touch these groups as well.