Significant improvements in donor stem cell trans­planta­tion have been made in recent years. As a result, donor trans­planta­tion – a procedure during which a patient receives stem cells from a healthy donor – has become safer and typically more successful for patients.

The majority of patients undergoing donor stem cell trans­planta­tion receive stem cells from unrelated donors. In these cases, a close match between donor and recipient tissue types is known to play an important important role in trans­plant outcomes.

A group of German researchers last fall published results of a large …