NEW YORK – Monitoring the health of a donated organ, such as a kidney, can be enhanced by looking for cell-free DNA from the donor shed into the recipient's bloodstream. Although results are often reported as a proportion of donor DNA relative to recipient DNA, Natera recently reported that host infection and having organs from more than one donor can change these levels.
The San Carlos, California-based firm is now developing methods to correct for these changes and further refine its Prospera test to monitor for kidney transplant rejection.