PhD defence
The dominant repertoire of minor histocompatibility antigens
- K.J. Fuchs
- Date
- Wednesday 14 October 2026
- Time
- Location
-
Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden
Supervisor(s)
Summary
Patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) as treatment for hematological diseases face the risk of Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD as well as relapse. Minor histocompatibility antigens (MiHAs) are essential targets after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). MiHAs are polymorphic T-cell epitopes that differ between patients and donors due to genetic differences, and are presented on healthy as well as malignant patient cells. T cells targeting broadly expressed MiHAs induce Graft-versus-Leukemia (GvL) reactivity as well as GvHD, while T cells for MiHAs with restricted or preferential expression on hematopoietic or non-hematopoietic cells may skew responses towards GvL or GvHD, respectively. MiHAs are relevant to predict, monitor and manipulate clinical responses to minimize GvHD and maximize GvL reactivity. This thesis describes an optimized strategy using genome-wide association scanning to identify MiHAs, explores the identified expanded MiHA repertoire also in regards to their potential as immunotherapeutic targets, and analyzes MiHA-specific T-cell frequencies after donor lymphocyte infusion following alloSCT using DNA-barcoded multimers as well as T-cell receptor analysis.
PhD dissertations
Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.
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