Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy  

The mission of the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment focused on cell, gene and immune therapies. Our vision is to cure pediatric catastrophic diseases with minimal treatment-related harm.

St. Jude pioneered mismatched transplants and NK cell therapy, thus providing a platform to perform life-saving transplants in patients without a matched donor or in patients with chemotherapy-refractory disease. The Department strives to perform cutting-edge laboratory and clinical research, particularly in the areas of immunogenetics, cellular therapy, transplant tolerance, immune reconstitution, infection control, and survivorship. Formal programs are offered for graduate studies or fellowships in postdoctoral research or clinical transplant.

Under the Bone Marrow Transplantation Program at St. Jude, one of the largest pediatric programs in the world, more than 3,600 transplants have been performed since 1982. Our patients are newborns, infants, children, adolescents and young adults who have a malignant or nonmalignant life-threatening disorder that is treatable with a hematopoietic stem cell / bone marrow transplant with autologous cells or allogeneic cells.

Children with life-threatening illnesses who are undergoing hematopoietic stem cell / bone marrow transplant require highly specialized resources and experienced staff, such as those available at St. Jude, to meet their physical, psychological, social, and developmental needs. At St. Jude, a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals provides advanced treatment, and all of our patients are enrolled on clinical research protocols that are designed to give patients the best possible chances of survival with the fewest possible complications when they undergo the transplantation procedure.

The Transplant Program at St. Jude is approved by the Children's Oncology Group (COG), the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium, and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). The Program is certified by the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT).