Clinical applications of cell-free DNA testing after transplantation

Presenter:
Kiran Khush, MD
Professor
Director of Heart Transplant Research
Stanford University
Learning Objectives:
Understand the development, testing, and validation of donor-derived cell-free DNA assays for acute rejection monitoring after heart transplantation
Understand the development, testing, and validation of donor-derived cell-free DNA assays for acute rejection monitoring after heart transplantation
Appreciate the potential for monitoring and early detection of post-transplant malignancies via circulating tumor DNA sequencing

[@pgauthi67]

Great talk! Question, how can our immune system can recognize non-self cfDNA? The fragments are so small and I don't see how immune cell receptors could bind to them based on these small SNP differences, especially as the differences are across the genome and any given cfDNA fragment may have few if any. Hopefully this will be addressed in the article you alluded to.
Also, for the PPV question, I was surprised you didn't mention the graft dysfunction in NR biopsies, as well as the lead time, when answering. I agree with your statement in the presentation that cfDNA may be better than biopsy, and not all FP are truly false.