Dr. Sacha De Serres

Award: KRESCENT New Investigator Award
Institution: Laval University
Year: 2012-2015

Lay Summary

Dr. Sacha De Serres is a new investigator at Laval University (Quebec City). He obtained his M.D. at Université de Montréal and trained in Internal Medicine and Nephrology at Laval University. He then completed a KRESCENT Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Transplantation Immunology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard University (Boston, Mass), in Dr. Nader Najafian’s laboratory. Dr. De Serres research focuses on the role of the immune system in transplantation.

The aim of his research is to study the role monocytes, a specific population of white blood cell, in organ rejection. More precisely, Dr De Serres’ aim is to decipher when and how these cells become activated following kidney transplantation, how they interact with other components of the immune system, and to better understand how they affect the transplanted kidney. These cells are intriguing: they can either repair or damage the kidney, depending on the biological condition. Although their impact on kidney transplantation is still not well defined, there is increasing evidence that they play a key role in determining the fate of the graft.

Dr. De Serres’ hope is that this knowledge will help to individualize immunosuppressive therapy and thus reduce the side effects of the anti-rejection drugs. It should also help to develop better treatments for chronic rejection, which will ultimately increase the life expectancy of the transplanted kidneys. These tools might prove beneficial not only to kidney transplant recipients, but eventually to the recipients of other organs.