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Indian-origin freshman donates stem cells in first week at med school
Mukund Desibhatla’s donation coincided with the beginning of his medical studies.
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Staff Reporter - Mon, 06, Oct 2025
- 15:00 EDT
- 17
Mukund Desibhatla / Photo: Hallie Leo/UMass Chan News
An Indian-origin medical student, Mukund Desibhatla, donated blood stem cells during his first week at the T.H. Chan School of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts.
According to university press, Desibhatla traveled from his new student orientation in Worcester to Boston to donate stem cells through the National Marrow Donation Program (NMDP). The donation coincided with the beginning of his medical studies.
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“The fact that my donation lined up with the start of med school reminds me about humanism in medicine and the importance of service, sacrifice and showing up for others,” Desibhatla told university press in an interview.
Born in Dallas, Desibhatla moved to San Antonio when his mother, Anasuya Gunturi, a hematology and oncology physician, began medical school. The family later relocated to Newton, Massachusetts, when she matched at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for residency.
“It’s a full-circle moment to start medical school exactly 20 years after my mom started medical school,” he said, reflecting on his mother’s journey and its influence on his own path in medicine.
Desibhatla joined the NMDP registry during his junior year of college and was contacted six years later while vacationing in Colombia, after matching with a cancer patient in another country. He said that only about 0.03 percent of registrants are called to donate.
“From receiving daily filgrastim injections during orientation to traveling to Boston for the donation day, it was a physically demanding process, but it’s the greatest privilege to give the gift of life to someone else,” he said.
A filmmaker and musician, Desibhatla gained recognition from the World Health Organization in 2024 for African Wave, a documentary he co-created about the war in Ukraine. He is also the founder and president of Riyaaz, a South Asian classical fusion ensemble, and frequently performs at cultural events such as Diwali.
The National Marrow Donation Program will host a registration event at UMass Chan on Oct. 16 in the Albert Sherman Center.
Desibhatla earned his master of public health degree from Yale University and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut, where he double-majored in Spanish and physiology and neurobiology.
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