Allogeneic stem cell transplantation

The Department of Internal Medicine III has been performing allogeneic stem cell transplants for patients with aplastic anaemia since 1972 and for patients with malignant haematological systemic diseases since 1979. The autologous stem cell transplantation programme was initiated in 1984. The Ulm Transplant Unit is a founding member of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), which was founded in 1978. Furthermore, the Ulm Transplant Centre has been a supporting member of the German Registry for Stem Cell Transplantation (DRST) since the registry was founded. To date, around 2,500 allogeneic stem cell and bone marrow transplants from family and unrelated donors have been carried out in Ulm, as well as around 2,300 autologous stem cell transplants. Since January 2019, the unit has been authorised to carry out CAR-T cell therapies.

Autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplants are offered for all standard indications, with a focus on acute leukaemias, malignant lymphomas and multiple myeloma for allogeneic transplants and multiple myeloma and malignant lymphomas for autologous transplants. The unit offers all available transplantation modalities (family donors, third-party donors, haploidentical donors). A particular focus is the use of radioactively labelled antibodies (radioimmunotherapy) to reduce the risk of relapse after transplantation in patients with acute leukaemia. The transplant unit participates in numerous national and international studies, including those in which new, not yet authorised drugs or procedures are tested. For quality assurance purposes, all transplants are reported to national (DRST), European (EBMT) and international (CIBMTR) registries, and our centre actively participates as a research centre in the evaluation of stem cell transplants worldwide by the CIBMTR.

In basic research, we focus on the restoration of a functional immune system after transplantation (immune reconstitution) with the aim of understanding the causes of the slow recovery of the immune system and, if possible, eliminating them.

The unit is JACIE (Joint Accreditation Committee-ISCT [Europe] & EBMT) certified for autologous and allogeneic transplantations, as a centre for the collection of peripheral blood stem cells and for bone marrow aspirations as well as for CAR-T cell therapies.

Further information on the active studies can be found at

Study Centre >> Clinical Trials >> Transplantation