Jan Storek

Hematopoietic cell transplantation is used to treat hematologic malignancies, aplastic anemia and congenital defects of hematopoiesis. The most frequent complications are immune complications. These include either insufficient immunity against microorganisms or leukemic cells, leading to infections or leukemic relapse, or deleterious immunity leading to, e.g., graft-versus-host disease.We study how immunity develops after hematopoietic cell transplantation. This includes evaluation of immunity against virus-infected cells or leukemic cells, with the goal of limiting the incidence of infections and relapse. It also includes evaluation of alloimmunity, autoimmunity and allergy. For example, we search for biomarkers of graft-vs-host disease, with the goal of improving donor selection or treating graft-vs-host disease preemptively.  For another example, we explore whether and how allergic diseases (asthma, rhinitis, eczema) or autoimmune diseases are transferred from a hematopoietic cell donor to a recipient, or cured if a hematopoietic cell transplant recipient with an autoimmune or allergic disease receives the graft from a healthy donor.