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When the Berkeley environmental testing lab where Kristine Harrison works cut employee hours, her pay dropped by 10 percent. She has been looking for a part-time job to fill the gap, but so far nothing that would fit her schedule has turned up. Then a co-worker told Harrison how she could make some quick and easy money.

The colleague’s primary care physician, Dr. Stephen Hart, told her about LeukoLab in Emeryville, which pays people for their bone marrow and then sells it to researchers. Hart, a Berkeley doctor, works part time for LeukoLab collecting blood products. Harrison made an appointment to have her blood screened for HIV and hepatitis.

“I was clean,” she said, “and they called me and asked if I wanted to donate—they call it donation even though they pay you.”

Four months later, Harrison has “donated” her bone marrow twice to LeukoLab, making $650. Now, four of her co-workers are also selling their blood products to make some extra money and hoping the economy will pick up.

It is illegal to sell whole blood or bone marrow for use in humans. Patients needing bone marrow transplants go through hospitals or the National Bone Marrow Donor Program. But Harrison’s bone marrow will not be used in humans or for research on animals, a fact that was important to her because she is an animal-rights advocate.

LeukoLab is owned by Allcells LLC, one of just a handful of commercial labs in the country that buy blood products and bone marrow for resale to researchers or for their own medical research. Customers for the blood products are primarily academic institutions, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, said Eric Martinelli, Allcells’ head of business development. The products are mostly used in cancer, diabetes and immune systems research.

“There is always demand,” he said. “We always have frozen stock in house. But some researchers need fresh cells that have not been broken down.”

The bad economy that brought Harrison and her colleagues to Leukolab hasn't hurt the company's business. “We have excelled through the downturn. It’s a profitable business,” said Martinelli. “It’s an enterprise not many are involved in.”

LeukoLab operates under the auspices of an Institutional Review Board, which insures that sellers sign consent forms, are treated humanely during the collection process and receive medical care should anything go wrong.