History

DKMS began in Germany with the mission of one man.

In 1990, Peter Harf was desperate to find a donor for his wife Mechtild, who had acute leukemia. The search seemed hopeless because, at the time, there were only 3,000 unrelated donors available in Germany. He gathered friends, family and volunteers to initiate donor drives, successfully recruiting some 68,000 donors in one year.

DKMS or "Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei" (German Bone Marrow Donor Center in English) was officially founded in 1991 by Peter Harf and his wife's physician, Professor Gerhard Ehninger. Their goal was simple: build a donor center to help more patients in need. Since then, DKMS has become the largest marrow donor center in the world.

DKMS has facilitated more than 13,500 transplants worldwide and now counts 1.7 million registered donors. Our donors are part of registries all over the world, including the U.S. DKMS donors make up approximately 13% of worldwide registered donors, more than 20% of NMDP registered donors and 50% of ZKRD registered donors.

We're not stopping there.

DKMS expanded into America to make it simpler for U.S. patients to gain access to DKMS registered donors. Through this effort, DKMS Americas has been able to establish a donor recruitment program and national campaigns throughout the U.S. to raise awareness and increase the diversity of its donor registry. In addition, DKMS Americas organizes any needed transports from Germany to the U.S., and ensures that there are few worries about finding a courier between the countries.

* Note: DKMS Americas is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in the United States; incorporated in Washington D.C. in June 2004. DKMS Americas is an independent legal entity that works closely with DKMS.