Improving donor selection or cellular composition of stem cell graft for transplantation

Research theme 1

Theme Lead: Professor Stephan Beck

Epigenetic profiling

Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and infection remain significant obstacles to improving transplant outcomes. The ability to predict with better accuracy the likelihood of GvHD with any particular donor-recipient pairing is well established to improve post-transplant outcomes. While predictive tools based on genetic profiling and HLA-typing are generally the focus of attention, epigenetic profiling of either the donor, the recipient, or of differences between them remain relatively unexplored. Therefore, we investigated epigenetic signatures that could have been used to better match donors to recipients and help limit the incidence of GvHD without compromising the immune system.