The research unit headed by Prof. Saas mainly focuses on i) the evaluation of donor-recipient interactions in the setting of kidney or hematopoietic cell (HC) transplantation, and ii) the development of cell-based and ex vivo gene therapy approaches to modulate donor-recipient interactions and thus increase overall transplantation efficacy. He studies the interactions between the immune system and apoptotic cells in order to propose apoptotic cell infusion as an alternative cell-based therapy approaches. This part of this work is performed in collaboration with Dr Sylvain Perruche.
In 2005 Prof. Saas founded the Biomonitoring Platform, a joint laboratory of the French Blood Agency and Besançon University Hospital dedicated to the biological follow-up of patients included in biotherapy studies (i.e., cell therapy including transfusion or monoclonal antibody) or receiving organ transplantation. In collaboration with Prof D. Ducloux, Prof. Saas works on the identification of biomarkers predictive of transplantation-associated complications including cancers and accelerated atherosclerosis.