Post-kidney Transplant diagnostics

Jonathon Han '21 spent his summer with nephrology patients at Weill Cornell Medical Center working to improve the diagnosis of post-transplant kidney-related diagnostics. He is profiled in a recent Cornell Research story.

Han found that interacting with patients for his clinical experiments comprises the most deeply satisfying aspect of medical research. “I’m always interested in acquiring a patient’s perspective on our work, to evaluate how our experimental methods affect their experience by understanding what works for them, and what doesn’t,” Han says. “It is, ultimately, the end goal of all patient-orientated medical research."

Han worked specifically on identifying patterns of mRNA in patient urine that signal something is wrong. The expression of certain DNA patterns can be indicators of more serious nephrological disesases and conditions. 

“The idea is that by identifying these signature expression patterns in blood DNA, nephrological diseases can be identified and diagnosed,” Han explains. He has identified several signature patterns relating to complications in the epithelial tissues, as well as glomerular cells in the kidney.

Read the full story on Cornell Research.