Research by Italian American medicine graduate John Marra is helping to improve the selection of donors for leukemia patients who need stem cell transplants.
"I really am pleased and hope to remain in Italy for my medical specialisation," said Marra, who will probably become a haematologist.
Marra, 31, who is from Los Angeles, graduated from The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome with a top honours degree.
"John's thesis compared two different types of donor," Marra's supervisor Andrea Bacigalupo told Adnkronos Salute.
"His aim was to analyse haploidentical related donors and to compare these with fully HLA (human leukocyte antigen) compatible donors," Bacigalupo explained.
Analysis of the data has shown a reduction in immunological complications in patients with identical HLA, said Bacigalupo, who lectures in haematology at the Catholic University's Faculty of Medicine.
The research done by Marra for his thesis "has clinical relevance as it allows us to optimise the selection of donors for leukemia patients who require a transplant," Bacigalupo said.
"In fact, we are already using the findings of the thesis. At the Gemelli, we most frequently pick HLA-identical donors," Bacigalupo stated, referring to Rome's Agostino Gemelli University Policlinic.
