(Wired) – San Francisco–based Ossium Health has carried out three transplants for cancer patients using stem cells from deceased donors’ bone marrow in recent months.

A donor must have closely matched genes for human leukocyte antigens, or HLA, to be considered compatible. “The issue is that it is difficult to find a fully matched donor for minorities,” says Muneer Abidi, an oncologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, who led the patient’s care.

The team turned to Ossium Health, a San Francisco–based biotech startup that is collecting bone marrow from recently deceased organ donors, cryopreserving it, and building a bank of frozen bone marrow. The company’s aim is to create an “off-the-shelf” treatment that can be readily deployed for patients who desperately need a transplant. (Read More)