Research
Interests:
Dr. Saidman's main research interests are in studies involving HLA alloantibodies. Renal transplant recipients have been monitored for donor specific antibodies post transplant, and the antibodies have been characterized and correlated with acute rejection episodes. Long-term outcomes in patients with donor specific antibody many years post-transplant are also studied. Methods to quantitate antibody strength in solid phase assays are being evaluated, so they can be used to monitor changes in antibody levels during desensitization or treatment for rejection. Results will be correlated with clinical outcome to determine if very low levels of antibody detected only by very sensitive techniques are clinically relevant.
Antibody studies are also performed on blood donors in an attempt to prevent transfusion associated acute lung injury (TRALI). Dr. Saidman is involved in research to determine the appropriate positive/negative cutoffs for the assays so that risk can be reduced but donors are not unnecessarily excluded.
A third area of HLA antibody research is in patients who have undergone combined bone marrow/kidney transplantation to induce tolerance. Dr. Saidman collaborates with investigators in the Transplant Biology Research Center and the Bone Marrow Transplant unit to study HLA antibody production, its significance in these patients and its relationship to B cell tolerance. Her lab also performs assays to detect chimerism in the tolerance protocol patients as well as in patients undergoing non-myeloablative stem cell transplantation to treat malignancies.
Another research focus is in the area of paired kidney exchange. Dr. Saidman played a key role in the development of the living kidney donor exchange program in New England, and continues to serve as histocompatibility expert for the program. Research in this area involves finding ways to accurately identify potential transplant recipients' HLA antibody specificities in order to better predict crossmatch results, and the reasons for and effects of unexpected positive crossmatches. |
