Alexander Robert Thomas Graham

I am interested in leveraging clinical data obtained through rigorous clinical research methods to improve outcomes for patients undergoing lung transplantation with my research up to this point primarily focusing on identifying abnormalities or patterns in disease processes. 

While undergoing pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship training at Duke, I became excited and passionate about taking care of cystic fibrosis patients, more specifically, those undergoing lung transplantation. I was surprised by the complexities of maintaining the balance between allowing the immune system to function in preventing infections and malignancies alongside its suppression to prevent lung allograft rejection. While rotating within Duke's lung transplant clinic I encountered many patients that, despite following care guidelines and maintaining this balance, would still develop chronic lung allograft dysfunction. It was challenging to see patients who had been given their lives back with a lung transplant start to go back down the path of dyspnea and loss of lung function that had brought them to consider transplant in the first place. This motivated me to learn more about lung transplantation with the hope of identifying new strategies that could help prevent patients from developing chronic lung allograft dysfunction.