1974 – The discovery of hematopoietic stem cells in cord blood.

1982 – Broxmeyer first suggests using umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells for transplantation.

1988 – Gluckman, Kurtzberg and Broxmeyer use a sibling's cord lood to cure a child with Fanconi's Anemia.

1993 – Kurtzberg performs the first transplant from an unrelated donor.

1995 – Wagner publishes data on related cord blood recipients.

1995 – Kurtzberg publishes data on 25 unrelated cord blood donors.

1995 – Gluckman publishes data on 78 related transplants and 65 unrelated transplants.

1998 – Rubenstein publishes the outcomes of 562 recipients of UCB transplants from unrelated donors in the New England Journal of Medicine.

2001 – Laughlin publishes a series on engraftment and survival in adult recip ents of UCB from unrelated donors.

2002 – Wagner publishes data on transplantation of over 100 patients from unrelated donor UCB.

2004 – Two articles in the NEJM established the effectiveness of UCB for transplantation in adults; editorial in that issue reported over 6000 transplants performed to date.

2005 – Barker and Wagner publish data employing novel approach of transplanting partially HLA-matched UCB units to enhance engraftment in adults with hematologic malignancy.