On Friday 19 June 2026 at 15:00, Cristina Ballester Bergada defends her PhD dissertation entitled “From Organ Assessment Towards Reconditioning: Redefining Ex Vivo Donor Kidney Evaluation and Intervention Through Machine Perfusion”. 

Before a kidney is transplanted, clinicians must decide whether the organ is suitable for transplantation. This PhD project investigates how machine perfusion can be used to assess the quality of donor kidneys outside the body and explore whether new treatment strategies can be developed to improve organs that are not initially considered good enough for transplantation. 

Kidney transplantation is the best treatment for many patients with end-stage kidney disease, but the shortage of suitable donor organs remains a major challenge. At the same time, it can be difficult to predict how well a donor kidney will function after transplantation.

In her PhD project, Cristina Ballester Bergada investigated how machine perfusion can be used to evaluate donor kidneys outside the body before transplantation. During machine perfusion, fluid is circulated through the kidney in a way that resembles blood flow in the body, providing information about the organ’s function and quality.
The project also explores how the time outside the body may serve as a treatment window, where donor kidneys could potentially be improved before transplantation. In the long term, this research may contribute to better use of donor organs and improved outcomes for patients receiving a kidney transplant.

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place in Auditorium, 1790-330, Aarhus University. Please see the press release for more information. 

Contact

PhD student Cristina Ballester Bergada
Mail: crisballester@clin.au.dk 
Phone: +45 50178003

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