Minnie Sarwal, MD, PhD

Professor
Surgery
+1 415 353-4043
Research Overview: 

The Sarwal Lab has been a pioneer in organ transplant biology and immunology advances by the use of high throughput technologies using single-cell and single-nuclear RNASeq, T cell and B cell receptor sequencing, single-cell and phsopho-protoemics, CyTOF and spatial imaging. The lab has had continuous funding from the NIH for over 25 years, initially at Stanford University and now at UCSF, in the Department of Surgery, Division of Multi-Organ Transplantation. The Sarwal Lab has also been recently funded by the Chang Zuckerberg Initiative to build the first normal kidney single cell atlas, in collaboration with Stanford, Harvard, the BROAD and Princeton. The lab is unique as it has a diverse group of dry and wet lab researchers and coordinator support and clinical trial access with real time recruitment of patients and biosamples from studies on kidney injury (such as FSGS, IgA), CMV and BK virus infection, and kidney/heart and lung transplantation. The Sarwal Lab provides deep training and exposure to translational research in kidney diseases, biomarker discovery and validation, novel drug design and repositioning and development of new computational tools for high-dimensional data analysis and integration. Minnie Sarwal, PI, is Co-Director of the T32 Training Grant in Transplant Surgery (FAVOR), Co-Director of the Kidney Pancreas Transplant Program at UCSF and is a Capstone Mentor for the Masters in Translational Medicine, UCSF/UC Berkeley.

Primary Thematic Area: 
Immunology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Tissue / Organ Biology & Endocrinology
Research Summary: 
Organ transplant biology and immunology advances by the use of high throughput technologies using single-cell and single-nuclear RNASeq, T cell and B cell receptor sequencing, single-cell and phsopho-protoemics, CyTOF and spatial imaging.

Websites

Featured Publications: 

Assessment of Postdonation Outcomes in US Living Kidney Donors Using Publicly Available Data Sets.

JAMA Network Open

Chen J, Bhattacharya S, Sirota M, Laiudompitak S, Schaefer H, Thomson E, Wiser J, Sarwal MM, Butte AJ

Characterizing pre-transplant and post-transplant kidney rejection risk by B cell immune repertoire sequencing.

Nature communications

Pineda S, Sigdel TK, Liberto JM, Vincenti F, Sirota M, Sarwal MM

A common rejection module (CRM) for acute rejection across multiple organs identifies novel therapeutics for organ transplantation.

The Journal of experimental medicine

Khatri P, Roedder S, Kimura N, De Vusser K, Morgan AA, Gong Y, Fischbein MP, Robbins RC, Naesens M, Butte AJ, Sarwal MM

A circulating antibody panel for pretransplant prediction of FSGS recurrence after kidney transplantation.

Science translational medicine

Delville M, Sigdel TK, Wei C, Li J, Hsieh SC, Fornoni A, Burke GW, Bruneval P, Naesens M, Jackson A, Alachkar N, Canaud G, Legendre C, Anglicheau D, Reiser J, Sarwal MM

The kSORT assay to detect renal transplant patients at high risk for acute rejection: results of the multicenter AART study.

PLoS medicine

Roedder S, Sigdel T, Salomonis N, Hsieh S, Dai H, Bestard O, Metes D, Zeevi A, Zeevi A, Gritsch A, Cheeseman J, Macedo C, Peddy R, Medeiros M, Vincenti F, Asher N, Salvatierra O, Shapiro R, Kirk A, Reed EF, Reed E, Sarwal MM

Complete steroid avoidance is effective and safe in children with renal transplants: a multicenter randomized trial with three-year follow-up.

American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons

Sarwal MM, Ettenger RB, Dharnidharka V, Benfield M, Mathias R, Portale A, McDonald R, Harmon W, Kershaw D, Vehaskari VM, Kamil E, Baluarte HJ, Warady B, Tang L, Liu J, Li L, Naesens M, Sigdel T, Waskerwitz J, Salvatierra O

Endothelial cell antibodies associated with novel targets and increased rejection.

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN

Jackson AM, Sigdel TK, Delville M, Hsieh SC, Dai H, Bagnasco S, Montgomery RA, Sarwal MM

A Three-Gene Assay for Monitoring Immune Quiescence in Kidney Transplantation.

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN

Roedder S, Li L, Alonso MN, Hsieh SC, Vu MT, Dai H, Sigdel TK, Bostock I, Macedo C, Metes D, Zeevi A, Shapiro R, Salvatierra O, Scandling J, Alberu J, Engleman E, Sarwal MM

The common rejection module in chronic rejection post lung transplantation.

PloS one

Sacreas A, Yang JYC, Vanaudenaerde BM, Sigdel TK, Liberto JM, Damm I, Verleden GM, Vos R, Verleden SE, Sarwal MM

A Novel Multi-Biomarker Assay for Non-Invasive Quantitative Monitoring of Kidney Injury.

Journal of clinical medicine

Watson D, Yang JYC, Sarwal RD, Sigdel TK, Liberto JM, Damm I, Louie V, Sigdel S, Livingstone D, Soh K, Chakraborty A, Liang M, Lin PC, Sarwal MM

Cell-Free DNA and CXCL10 Derived from Bronchoalveolar Lavage Predict Lung Transplant Survival.

Journal of clinical medicine

Yang JYC, Verleden SE, Zarinsefat A, Vanaudenaerde BM, Vos R, Verleden GM, Sarwal RD, Sigdel TK, Liberto JM, Damm I, Watson D, Sarwal MM

Optimizing Detection of Kidney Transplant Injury by Assessment of Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA via Massively Multiplex PCR.

Journal of clinical medicine

Sigdel TK, Archila FA, Constantin T, Prins SA, Liberto J, Damm I, Towfighi P, Navarro S, Kirkizlar E, Demko ZP, Ryan A, Sigurjonsson S, Sarwal RD, Hseish SC, Chan-On C, Zimmermann B, Billings PR, Moshkevich S, Sarwal MM