As both a medical doctor and researcher, I am dedicated to improving patient care by finding the answers to complex biological questions. My research focuses on children who have undergone stem cell transplants, aiming to understand how their blood and immune systems recover after this life-saving procedure.
One key area of my work is clonal hematopoiesis—the presence of genetic changes in blood cells that provide a (transient) proliferative advantage and can increase the risk of certain diseases, such as leukemia and cardiovascular diseases. While this phenomenon is typically associated with aging, our research has shown that it also occurs more frequently in individuals who received a stem cell transplant during childhood. By studying how these genetic changes develop over time and how they may impact outcomes after transplant, we hope to provide new insights that improve long-term care and patient outcomes.