Maarten Naesens

Biography
Maarten Naesens, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor at KU Leuven and a transplant physician-scientist focused on improving long-term outcomes after kidney transplantation. His research combines clinical data, tissue pathology, molecular profiling, and computational approaches to understand why transplanted kidneys fail and how rejection can be detected and treated more precisely. His group studies the biology of alloimmune injury, chronic graft damage, and treatment response using transcriptomics, single-cell and spatial technologies, circulating biomarkers, and cell-free DNA. Dr. Naesens is also involved in efforts to integrate these data into clinical decision-support tools that can move transplant care beyond conventional histology and one-size-fits-all immunosuppression. Through KU Leuven and University Hospitals Leuven, he has contributed to large translational cohorts linking molecular findings with longitudinal patient outcomes. His work aims to define actionable disease states, identify earlier signals of rejection or injury, and develop precision strategies that preserve graft function while minimizing unnecessary immunosuppression and treatment toxicity.