Paul J. Martin, MD

Dr. Paul Martin studies ways to improve patient health and survival after blood stem cell transplantation. A major area of his research is graft-vs.-host disease, a common transplant complication. GVHD occurs when transplanted donor immune cells attack the patient’s healthy tissues. Dr. Martin studies better ways to treat and prevent both acute and chronic forms of GVHD. He has also led international efforts to develop research priorities for chronic GVHD and standardize how results are measured in clinical trials of new treatments for the condition. Dr. Martin also is interested in the role of genetic variation in transplantation outcomes. He studies how patterns of small variants in the genomes of both patients and donors affect such patient outcomes as GVHD and mortality. Ultimately, the results of this research should inform, for example, improved transplant matching and the development of new targeted drugs.