Bi-Racial Bone Marrow Hard To Find

Each year, of the 10,000 to 15,000 patients who need an unrelated bone marrow match only a quarter find one. The odds are much worse for Krissy because she's bi-racial.

Of the seven million people in the National Marrow Donor Program only 180,000 have multi-racial backgrounds.

"The larger the donor pool the better chance for finding a match," said Jimmy Loon.

Jimmy Loon is a marrow expert for One Lambda, the nation's largest supplier of bone marrow testing kits. He says the goal is to find someone with matching human leukocyte antigens located on chromosome six.

This is called a haplo-type and it's made up of alleles inherited from each parent.

Some of Krissy's alleles are specific to the Japanese population.

"You also have to match the alleles that come from the Caucasian gene pool," said Loon.

A Japanese/Caucasian mix is her best bet, although Loon says the Caucasian part of Krissy's alleles may also be found in someone Chinese.

Haplo-types vary because of genes handed down thru generations. So the more people who register, the better.

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• bi-racial
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• mixed
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