Transplants
Megan’s Story: Life in Color
If you ever met Megan Mehta, you’d be struck almost instantly by her energy, her vivacity. Megan was born with a lust for life and has spent the past five years reclaiming that energy after having spent ages 8 to...
Carolina’s Story: Twin Hearts
Childhood: Sister Hearts Carolina Tejada was born in Cali, Colombia in 1978. She spent a happy, healthy childhood alongside her older brother, Juan Guillermo, and her twin sister, Catalina. At age 11, however, Juan Guillermo, who was three years older...
DYung’s Story: A New Liver, a New Life Mission
In 2007, DYung Lu was working full-time, going to school full-time, and getting very little sleep. Given his hectic schedule, he was unsurprised when he started to feel physical ill and worn down, but he continued to press forward. Then...
The Lees’ Story: Bound by Blood — and Liver
Gracielle Lee went into labor with her first and only child, Bryson, when she was just 22 weeks pregnant. At such a critical period, she, her husband Barry and their care team were anxious to delay delivery as long as...
Supporting Transplant Patients: SBC & Donor Network West
Next-Generation Sequencing
By Deepti Sharma, PhD, Clinical Laboratory Scientist; Tamara A. Vayntrub, Project Manager; Bing Melody Zhang, MD, MS, FCAP, Assistant Director, HLA Lab SBC is now using next-generation sequencing (NGS) as the basis for its HLA typing method for both bone...
The Intricacies of Hospital and HLA Lab Communications
By Tamara Vayntrub, Project Manager, HLA Lab SBC’s Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics Laboratory (HLA Lab) is a leader in the field of transplantation and genetics. The HLA Lab supports patients by using state-of-the-art technology to perform solid organ and bone marrow...
The History of Heart Transplants: Stanford Innovation
By Marcelo Fernández-Viña, PhD, D (ABHI), Medical Director of SBC’s Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics Laboratory (HLA Lab) A few months ago for national Donate Life Month, we shared information on our SBC blog (HemoBLOGin) about organ donation and the critical role...
Nicole’s Story: Fighting Aplastic Anemia with “Little Bags of Life”
In May of 2013, Nicole Porto was thriving in all aspects of life. She had built up a life for herself that she was proud of. Physically, she had been training for the Brooklyn Half Marathon and felt extremely strong;...