Development of an early diagnostic test for rejection after heart transplantation

Current care for heart failure patients requiring transplantation involves obtaining a cardiac biopsy, which is both invasive and costly. Therefore, a primary aim of this centre is to develop a non-invasive test for diagnosing rejection after heart transplantation. Prof Konstantinov has previously developed and patented a blood test to predict low-grade transplantation rejection based on next generation sequencing. Based on this work, we are currently profiling conventional and unconventional T cells using flow cytometric analysis of transplant patient blood samples. This technology offers a faster, cheaper, and less invasive approach to monitoring for rejection in solid organ transplantation.