Lee Ann Baxter-Lowe, PhD

Dr Baxter-Lowe’s research involves characterizing HLA polymorphism and determining its relevance in transplantation and human disease. In recent years she has been investigating the role of HLA antibodies in transplantation of solid organs and hematopoietic stem cells. Her laboratory has supported numerous single and multicenter clinical trials in transplantation and has been a core laboratory for the NIH Immune Tolerance Network. Her research has been reported in more than 125 scientific publications.

Dr. Baxter-Lowe has also served as a clinical histocompatibility laboratory director and in this capacity has been involved in advancing histocompatibility testing and its clinical application. She has had a long-standing commitment to policy development and is currently serving as Chair of the Histocompatibility Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and is the facilitator for the Histocompatibility Workgroup for the 2012 National Consensus Conference on Kidney Paired Donation (KPD). She has served as a member or chair of numerous national and international committees in this field.

• Novel Scoring System for Ranking Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Clin Transplant. 2024 Nov; 38(11):e15478. . View in PubMed
• HLA diversity in ethnic populations can affect detection of donor-specific antibodies by single antigen beads Front Immunol. 2023; 14:1287028. . View in PubMed
• Next generation multiplexing for digital PCR using a novel melt-based hairpin probe design Front Genet. 2023; 14:1272964. . View in PubMed
• Cell-free DNA as a solid-organ transplant biomarker: technologies and approaches Biomark Med. 2022 04; 16(5):401-415. . View in PubMed
• Haploidentical vs sibling, unrelated, or cord blood hematopoietic cell transplantation for acute lymphoblastic leukemia Blood Adv. 2022 01 11; 6(1):339-357. . View in PubMed
• Donor chimerism and immune reconstitution following haploidentical transplantation in sickle cell disease Front Immunol. 2022; 13:1055497. . View in PubMed
• Genetics of HLA Peptide Presentation and Impact on Outcomes in HLA-Matched Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Transplant Cell Ther. 2021 07; 27(7):591-599. . View in PubMed
• Defining and characterizing HLA diversity Hum Immunol. 2021 07; 82(7):455-456. . View in PubMed
• The changing landscape of HLA typing: Understanding how and when HLA typing data can be used with confidence from bench to bedside Hum Immunol. 2021 Jul; 82(7):466-477. . View in PubMed
• The discovery of the HLA-B*56:75 allele shows that HLA sequencing is important in all transplant settings HLA. 2021 05; 97(5):463-464. . View in PubMed
• Growing evidence that 2-field high-resolution HLA typing is important for kidney transplantation Am J Transplant. 2020 12; 20(12):3277-3278. . View in PubMed
• Optimal Donor for African Americans with Hematologic Malignancy: HLA-Haploidentical Relative or Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2020 10; 26(10):1930-1936. . View in PubMed
• The clinical impact of donor-specific antibodies on antibody-mediated rejection and long-term prognosis after heart transplantation Curr Opin Organ Transplant. 2019 06; 24(3):245-251. . View in PubMed
• The safety and efficacy of clofarabine in combination with high-dose cytarabine and total body irradiation myeloablative conditioning and allogeneic stem cell transplantation in children, adolescents, and young adults (CAYA) with poor-risk acute leukemia Bone Marrow Transplant. 2019 02; 54(2):226-235. . View in PubMed
• Human leukocyte antigens antibodies after lung transplantation: Primary results of the HALT study Am J Transplant. 2018 09; 18(9):2285-2294. . View in PubMed
• CPRA for allocation of kidneys in the US: More candidates =98% CPRA, lower positive crossmatch rates and improved transplant rates for sensitized patients Hum Immunol. 2016 May; 77(5):395-402. . View in PubMed
• A Phase I Study of Reduced-Intensity Conditioning and Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation Followed by Dose Escalation of Targeted Consolidation Immunotherapy with Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin in Children and Adolescents with CD33+ Acute Myeloid Leukemia Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2016 Apr; 22(4):698-704. . View in PubMed
• Pilot trial of risk-adapted cyclophosphamide intensity based conditioning and HLA matched sibling and unrelated cord blood stem cell transplantation in newly diagnosed pediatric and adolescent recipients with acquired severe aplastic anemia Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2014 Jul; 61(7):1289-94. . View in PubMed
• Identification of a permissible HLA mismatch in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation Blood. 2014 Feb 20; 123(8):1270-8. . View in PubMed
• Impact of allele-level HLA matching on outcomes after myeloablative single unit umbilical cord blood transplantation for hematologic malignancy Blood. 2014 Jan 02; 123(1):133-40. . View in PubMed
• Amino acid substitution at peptide-binding pockets of HLA class I molecules increases risk of severe acute GVHD and mortality Blood. 2013 Nov 21; 122(22):3651-8. . View in PubMed
• Multiple mismatches at the low expression HLA loci DP, DQ, and DRB3/4/5 associate with adverse outcomes in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation Blood. 2013 May 30; 121(22):4603-10. . View in PubMed
• Busulfan, fludarabine, and alemtuzumab conditioning and unrelated cord blood transplantation in children with sickle cell disease Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2013 Apr; 19(4):676-7. . View in PubMed
• Transplantation-related mortality, graft failure, and survival after reduced-toxicity conditioning and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in 100 consecutive pediatric recipients Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2013 Apr; 19(4):552-61. . View in PubMed
• Effect of HLA-matching recipients to donor noninherited maternal antigens on outcomes after mismatched umbilical cord blood transplantation for hematologic malignancy Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2012 Dec; 18(12):1890-6. . View in PubMed
• Busulfan, fludarabine, and alemtuzumab as a reduced toxicity regimen for children with malignant and nonmalignant diseases improves engraftment and graft-versus-host disease without delaying immune reconstitution Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2012 Nov; 18(11):1656-63. . View in PubMed
• Scoring HLA class I mismatches by HistoCheck does not predict clinical outcome in unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplantation Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2012 May; 18(5):739-46. . View in PubMed
• T cell depletion utilizing CD34(+) stem cell selection and CD3(+) addback from unrelated adult donors in paediatric allogeneic stem cell transplantation recipients Br J Haematol. 2012 Apr; 157(2):205-19. . View in PubMed
• A Phase I study of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) in combination with busulfan and cyclophosphamide (Bu/Cy) and allogeneic stem cell transplantation in children with poor-risk CD33+ AML: a new targeted immunochemotherapy myeloablative conditioning (MAC) regimen Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2012 Feb; 18(2):324-9. . View in PubMed
• HLA-DR matching in organ allocation: balance between waiting time and rejection in pediatric kidney transplantation Arch Surg. 2011 Jul; 146(7):824-9. . View in PubMed
• Reduced-intensity conditioning allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for patients with hematologic malignancies who relapse following autologous transplantation: a multi-institutional prospective study from the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB trial 100002) Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2011 Apr; 17(4):558-65. . View in PubMed
• An age-dependent pharmacokinetic study of intravenous and oral mycophenolate mofetil in combination with tacrolimus for GVHD prophylaxis in pediatric allogeneic stem cell transplantation recipients Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2010 Mar; 16(3):333-43. . View in PubMed
• Kidney transplantation at UCSF: 8,300 transplants and onward Clin Transpl. 2010; 161-7. . View in PubMed
• HLA-A disparities illustrate challenges for ranking the impact of HLA mismatches on bone marrow transplant outcomes in the United States Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2009 Aug; 15(8):971-81. . View in PubMed
• Advancement and clinical implications of HLA typing in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation Cancer Treat Res. 2009; 144:71-94. . View in PubMed
• Results of the Cord Blood Transplantation Study (COBLT): clinical outcomes of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood transplantation in pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies Blood. 2008 Nov 15; 112(10):4318-27. . View in PubMed
• High-resolution donor-recipient HLA matching contributes to the success of unrelated donor marrow transplantation Blood. 2007 Dec 15; 110(13):4576-83. . View in PubMed
• A high degree of HLA disparity arises from limited allelic diversity: analysis of 1775 unrelated bone marrow transplant donor-recipient pairs Hum Immunol. 2007 Jan; 68(1):30-40. . View in PubMed
• Impact of HLA class I and class II high-resolution matching on outcomes of unrelated donor bone marrow transplantation: HLA-C mismatching is associated with a strong adverse effect on transplantation outcome Blood. 2004 Oct 01; 104(7):1923-30. . View in PubMed

• Kapoor, Neena