Dr Kriti Verma is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Birmingham, where she studies immune responses following allogeneic stem cell transplantation and develops translational strategies to improve patient outcomes.
Her research sits at the interface of immunology, haematology and cellular therapy, with a focus on understanding how immune responses following transplantation influence complications such as graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), infection risk and disease relapse. By analysing patient immune responses during the early post-transplant period, her work aims to identify biomarkers that predict complications and to develop targeted immunotherapies that improve transplant success while preserving anti-tumour immunity. Her work combines patient-derived samples with advanced immunological and genomic approaches, including single-cell sequencing, functional T-cell assays and immune profiling.
Prior to joining Birmingham, Dr Verma completed her PhD at Hannover Medical School in Germany, where she investigated T-cell responses following stem cell transplantation and explored microRNA signatures as predictive markers for transplant complications. Her doctoral work also examined virus-specific T-cell immunity in transplant recipients, contributing to understanding how antiviral immune responses influence transplant outcomes.
In addition to her research activities, Dr Verma contributes to teaching and mentorship within the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy. She is involved in supervising postgraduate researchers and supporting early-career scientists in translational immunology. She is also actively engaged in patient and public involvement activities aimed at improving awareness and understanding of stem cell transplantation research.
Her long-term research goal is to develop precision immunotherapy approaches that enable safer and more effective stem cell transplantation for patients with blood cancers.