DKMS has published its second Global Impact Report. The report summarises successes and key figures for 2024 and underlines the mission to offer those affected by blood cancer and blood disorders worldwide a second chance at life.

More than 13 million people are registered with DKMS as potential stem cell donors. Since 1991, the organization has arranged over 123,000 stem cell donations. In 2024, the database included 12.7 million potential donors from seven countries on five continents. Almost 729,000 people registered for the first time, 344,000 of them in Germany.

In 2024, 9,126 people in 60 countries received a transplant through DKMS donations, 6,627 in Germany. Through aid programs, another 2,275 patients received transplants, 454 of them in 2024, especially in underserved regions.

The Bone Marrow Transplant Start-up Program was launched in 2024 and provides infrastructural and medical support to hospitals in underserved areas. By the end of 2024, cooperation with children’s hospitals in Uzbekistan and Vietnam had enabled six transplants.

A milestone was the first transplant of stored stem cells from an adult donor. The DKMS Stem Cell Bank in Dresden stores surplus peripheral stem cells to make them available quickly.

DKMS’s work is based on three pillars: expanding the donor pool for genetic diversity, improving access to transplants in low-income countries, and promoting research into cell therapies.

A task force motivates young people between the ages of 18 and 25 to register through campaigns at festivals, schools and sports clubs.

By 2030, DKMS plans to increase the number of donors to 17 million and save 200,000 lives since its founding.

PREVIEW: The German Congress of Laboratory Medicine (DKLM) 2025 promises exciting insights into the interface between science and clinical practice. Under the motto “Science for Precision Medicine”, the German Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (DGKL) and the Umbrella Association for Technologists and Analysts in Medicine Germany (DVTA) invite experts from research, clinics and industry to meet on October 23 and 24 at the Congress Center Leipzig (CCL). The two-day event is aimed at laboratory physicians, biomedical analysts and decision-makers to discuss current advances in diagnostics and strengthen networks.