Laura Donadeu, a PhD student in the Nephrology and Renal Transplantation group at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), has received the award for the best transplant article of 2024 from the Catalan Transplant Society. The award is given in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia, and one of the benefits of receiving it is the opportunity to become a member of this institution.

The article, published in Kidney International, studies the impact of the immune system with respect to cytomegalovirus infection, one of the most common infections after transplantation. Unlike other studies, they did not focus on the analysis of specific cells, but rather took a global view of the immune system, both innate and adaptive, to identify which cell populations are most relevant in the prevention and response to the virus. To do this, they used an innovative technique (mass cytometry or CyTOF) that allows multiple cell markers to be analysed simultaneously, and carried out an unsupervised analysis using machine learning and various statistical models. The aim of the study was to be able to classify patients according to their risk of infection and thus individualise their treatment.

The research is another step forward in research aimed at improving the lives of transplant patients who, due to the strong immunosuppressive treatment they receive to prevent rejection, are much more susceptible to infection.