Graduate Student (March 2017 – Present)

Dan Fu graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in biology and a minor in economics. Her undergraduate research focused on the role of miR-33 in regulating lipid metabolism in D. melanogaster. She will be interrogating NK cell functions in settings of kidney transplantation to improve graft tolerance and episodes associated with kidney injury and graft loss. Additionally, Dan Fu focuses on the role of HLA class I and KIR immunogenetics as they govern the capacity for NK cells to react to mismatched, non-self HLA class I on allogeneic kidney grafts as well as their ability to induce ADCC reactivity and production of cytokines in the presence of donor-specific antibodies, viral infections and in settings of inflammation.

Dan Fu’s research will rely on use of genomic data on patients (both on germline and allogeneic donor-derived tissue) as well as ex vivo profiling and in vitro mechanistic studies using mass cytometry, RNA sequencing, imaging mass cytometry and OLink proteomics.

contact: danfu.ruan@icahn.mssm.edu