Sebastiaan Heidt is Professor of Immunogenetics of Transplantation and head of the Laboratory for Transplant Immunology at Leiden University Medical Center. He is also Professor of Transplant Immunology at Erasmus MC where he heads the Nephrology and Transplantation Laboratory.

More information about Sebastiaan Heidt

Sebastiaan Heidt is Professor of Immunogenetics of Transplantation and head of the Laboratory for Transplant Immunology at Leiden University Medical Center. He is also Professor of Transplant Immunology at Erasmus MC where he heads the Nephrology and Transplantation Laboratory.

Chair

The chair of prof. dr. Sebastiaan Heidt focuses on obtaining a better understanding of the genetically determined drivers of the alloimmune response and to use this knowledge to optimize matching for clinical purposes.

The most important factors for matching between organ donor and recipient are tissue groups called human leukocyte antigens (HLA). Whereas matching for HLA on the antigen level has been incorporated in organ allocation systems since the late 1960’s, more recent advancements have exposed a much deeper layer of complexity in how this highly polymorphic system is recognized by the immune system, and which cells and mechanisms are involved. The Laboratory for Transplant Immunology of the LUMC has a longstanding history of studying the HLA system and the immune response hereto. Prof. Heidt, together with Dr. Dave Roelen and their team will continue this research line with the ultimate aim to benefit HLA diagnostics and to improve HLA matching in organ allocation to facilitate more transplantations and to prolong graft survival. The research has a strong translational character and is performed in a collaborative setting with the HLA diagnostics laboratory of the LUMC, as well as the Eurotransplant Reference Laboratory (ETRL).

With Prof. Heidt also being appointed as full professor at the Erasmus MC the two medical centers are in a unique position where, besides HLA diagnostics, an intense collaboration on research and education for transplantation immunology will be established.

Academic career

Prof. Heidt studied Biomedical Sciences at Leiden University and conducted his PhD research under Prof. Frans Claas at the Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion at the LUMC. He obtained his PhD on 03-03-2010 with the thesis entitled: Characterization of B cell responses in relation to organ transplantation.

After his PhD, he worked for two years as a post-doc in the laboratory of Prof. Kathryn Wood in Oxford, UK to investigate biomarkers for the prediction and detection of organ rejection.

After returning to the LUMC in 2011 he built his own research group and became managing director of the ETRL in 2014. In 2017 he was appointed as associate professor, after which in 2020 he became group leader of the Laboratory for Transplant Immunology and director of the ETRL. In 2024, he made the switch to the Nephrology and Transplantation Laboratory of Erasmus MC, where he was appointed full professor of transplant immunology in March 2025. In July 2025, he re-joined the LUMC part-time as professor of Immunogenetics of Transplantation.