University of California San Francisco

Minnie Sarwal, MD
Minnie
Sarwal
MD, PhD
Professor of Surgery, Medicine, Pediatrics
Professor (Adj), Stanford University, UC Berkeley
Director, Precision Transplant Medicine, UCSF
Co-Director, T32 Training Grant, Transplant Surgery, UCSF

Address

505 Parnassus Avenue, #M893D
San Francisco, CA 94117
United States

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 415-353-4043

    Biography

    Minnie M. Sarwal M.D., Ph.D., FRCP, DCH is Professor in Residence, Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery, Co-Director of the Pancreas Kidney Transplant Program, Director of the Precision Transplant Medicine, Sarwal Lab at UCSF. Sarwal is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the fields of renal and transplant medicine, genomics, proteomics and immunology. The Sarwal Lab supported precision and predictive diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for organ transplant recipients by discovering new treatments and investigative approaches using in vitro, CRISPR-Cas9, and animal KO models relevant to kidney disease, FSGS and transplant rejection. Sarwal was Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics and Immunology at Stanford University, Medical Director of the Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital and Director of the Sarwal Lab for 16 years prior to joining UCSF in 2014.

    Sarwal received her M.D. from Calcutta Medical College in India, completed her residency in the UK, and a fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology at Guy's Hospital, London, UK. She earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Cambridge University (Christ's College) where she worked with Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenner on the synthetic mapping of human and puffer fish G proteins. Sarwal also holds a Diploma in Child Health from London, UK, and degrees from the Royal College of Physicians, UK (MRCP) and is an elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, UK in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field of medicine. Sarwal is a member of numerous national and international societies including the ASN, IPTA, AST, TTS, and IPNA. She is Chief Editor, Frontiers in Nephrology (a nature journal), AE for Clinical Transplantation and has published in and served as AE/reviewer for many other scientific journals inclusive of the Nature Medicine, NEJM, AJT, Nature Communications, PNAS, Journal of Immunology and Journal of Experimental Medicine.

    Sarwal has also been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including the Order of Excellence in Scientific Research (Cambridge, UK, 2002), the Dean's Teaching Award (2005), the Junior Faculty Award from the CCIS (2003-6), recognized Key Opinion Leader in Organ Transplantation by the Transplantation Society (2007-2009), elected Senator at Large for the Stanford Faculty Senate (2005-10), Faculty Senate UCSF (2015-17), the TTS-Roche Award for Outstanding Achievement Transplantation Science (Clinical; 2010), and the Cunio Richardson NKF Award for Scientific Excellence (2012). She also serves on the FDA Science Board for her third term, and is current Chair of the NIH-SBIR review study section and is Chair of the Department of Defense, Tissue Transplantation section. She is also a successful entrepreneur scientist and a founding member of the Rosenman Institute at UCSF.

    Videos

    Education

    Education

    La Martiniere, Calcutta, India, English Language and Literature, I.S.C.,1981

    Calcutta Medical College, Calcutta, India, M.D.,1985

    Diploma in Child Health (D.C.H.), London, UK, with distinction 1989

    Cambridge University, U.K, Ph.D.,1995

     

    Residencies

    Residency (Medicine and Surgery), Calcutta Medical College, India, 06/1986-06/1987

    Senior House Officer (Pediatrics and Surgery), Calcutta Medical College, India. Advisors: Sir Keith Peters, Sir Cyril Chantler and Sydney Brenner, 06/1987-02/1988

    Senior House Officer, General Pediatrics & Neonates, Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, UK, 02/-07/1989

    Senior House Officer, General Pediatrics & Neonates, Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Granthan (GKGH), UK, 03/1988-02/1989

    Senior House Officer, Neonatology, Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI), Leicester, UK, 08/-11/1989

    Senior House Officer, General Pediatrics & Neonates, Leicester General Hosp. (LGH), Leicester, UK, 12/89- 03/90

    Registrar, Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgical Unit, Groby Road Hospital, (GRH), Leicester, UK, 04/90-07/90

    Senior House Officer, Pediatric Nephrology Unit, Guy's Hospital, London, UK, 08/90-10/90

    Lecturer/Registrar, Pediatric Unit, Guy's Hospital, London, UK, 10/90-09/91

    Lecturer/Senior Registrar,  Pediatric Nephrology, Dept. of Pediatrics, Guy's Hospital, London, U.K., 10/92-07/95

    Clinical Expertise

    Acute Kidney Failure
    Chronic Kidney Disease
    End-Stage Renal Disease
    Kidney Transplant Clinical Trials
    Pediatric Bone and Mineral Disorders
    Pediatric Kidney Transplantation
    Pediatric Transplant Nephrology
    Transplant Immunology
    Oxalosis
    Methylmalonic acidemia
    Cystinosis

    Clinical Trials

    1. Related Conditions: COVID-19, Acute Kidney Injury, Kidney Injury, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome| Start Date: | End Date:

    Program Affiliations

    UCSF Biomedical Sciences (BMS) Program

    Associate Member, UCSF Liver Center

    Grants and Funding

    • Filling a Void of Research (FAVOR) Training for Transplant Surgeons | NIH | 2016-08-01 - 2026-07-31 | Role: Co-Principal Investigator
    • Mapping Immune Responses to CMV in Renal Transplant Recipients | NIH | 2017-08-01 - 2022-07-31 | Role: Co-Principal Investigator
    • CD40 autoantibody and FSGS recurrence | NIH | 2017-04-01 - 2022-03-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • Drug Repositioning in Diabetic Nephropathy | NIH | 2016-09-01 - 2020-07-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • Transplant injury biology and monitoring by urine proteomics | NIH | 2009-07-01 - 2016-08-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • Urinary Proteome Monitoring for Transplant Injury | NIH | 2010-08-23 - 2015-09-19 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • Gene and Cytokine Expression in Tolerance and GVHD | NIH | 2009-09-25 - 2014-08-31 | Role: Co-Principal Investigator
    • A Proteomics Research Resource for Integrative Biology | NIH | 2003-09-15 - 2013-06-30 | Role: Co-Investigator
    • General Clinical Research Center | NIH | 1978-12-01 - 2011-11-30 | Role: Co-Investigator
    • Novel Urinary Proteomic Biomarkers for Acute Renal Transplant Rejection | NIH | 2009-06-01 - 2011-05-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • Defining Biomarkers in Pediatric Renal Transplantation | NIH | 2004-06-01 - 2009-05-31 | Role: Principal Investigator

    Research Narrative

    As principal Investigator on numerous multicenter clinical trials, both industry and institutional, Sarwal has developed extensive expertise in the design and execution of clinical studies. While at Stanford, Sarwal conducted the first successful U.S. steroid avoidance trial and the first dosing safety trial for Rituximab in pediatric renal transplantation.

    In 2009, Sarwal founded, Organ-i, a Stanford University spin-out to develop and commercialize her pioneering work. Organ-i leveraged 15 years of research and over $20M in NIH grants. The company's goal is to improve the clinical management of transplant patients globally by commericializing non-invasive tests to monitor and predict organ health for transplant recipients.

    Sarwal is credited with the introduction of (k-SORT), a Kidney Solid Organ Rejection Test, the company's lead product, as well as a pipeline of molecular assays focused on post-transplant rejection monitoring and allograft tolerance. In June 2014. Immucor, Inc., a global leader in transfusion and transplantation diagnostics, announced the acquisition of Organ-i and retained Sarwal as a scientific advisory role to advance the Organ-i pipeline.

    Research Interests

    Organ diseases

    Transplant immunobiology of rejection and tolerance

    Genomics

    Proteomics

    Antibiomics

    Metabolomics

    GVHD

    Hepatitis B, C and HIV

    Publications

    MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 258
    1. Complete steroid avoidance is effective and safe in children with renal transplants: a multicenter randomized trial with three-year follow-up.
      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| | PubMed
    2. Subclinical inflammation and chronic renal allograft injury in a randomized trial on steroid avoidance in pediatric kidney transplantation.
      Naesens M, Salvatierra O, Benfield M, Ettenger RB, Dharnidharka V, Harmon W, Mathias R, Sarwal MM, SNS01-NIH-CCTPT Multicenter Trial| | PubMed
    3. Protein and peptide biomarkers in organ transplantation.
      Sigdel TK, Gao X, Sarwal MM| | PubMed
    4. A randomized controlled crossover trial with delayed-release cysteamine bitartrate in nephropathic cystinosis: effectiveness on white blood cell cystine levels and comparison of safety.
      Langman CB, Greenbaum LA, Sarwal M, Grimm P, Niaudet P, Deschênes G, Cornelissen E, Morin D, Cochat P, Matossian D, Gaillard S, Bagger MJ, Rioux P| | PubMed
    5. Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy.
      Klionsky DJ, Abdalla FC, Abeliovich H, Abraham RT, Acevedo-Arozena A, Adeli K, Agholme L, Agnello M, Agostinis P, Aguirre-Ghiso JA, Ahn HJ, Ait-Mohamed O, Ait-Si-Ali S, Akematsu T, Akira S, Al-Younes HM, Al-Zeer MA, Albert ML, Albin RL, Alegre-Abarrategui J, Aleo MF, Alirezaei M, Almasan A, Almonte-Becerril M, Amano A, Amaravadi R, Amarnath S, Amer AO, Andrieu-Abadie N, Anantharam V, Ann DK, Anoopkumar-Dukie S, Aoki H, Apostolova N, Arancia G, Aris JP, Asanuma K, Asare NY, Ashida H, Askanas V, Askew DS, Auberger P, Baba M, Backues SK, Baehrecke EH, Bahr BA, Bai XY, Bailly Y, Baiocchi R, Baldini G, Balduini W, Ballabio A, Bamber BA, Bampton ET, Bánhegyi G, Bartholomew CR, Bassham DC, Bast RC, Batoko H, Bay BH, Beau I, Béchet DM, Begley TJ, Behl C, Behrends C, Bekri S, Bellaire B, Bendall LJ, Benetti L, Berliocchi L, Bernardi H, Bernassola F, Besteiro S, Bhatia-Kissova I, Bi X, Biard-Piechaczyk M, Blum JS, Boise LH, Bonaldo P, Boone DL, Bornhauser BC, Bortoluci KR, Bossis I, Bost F, Bourquin JP, Boya P, Boyer-Guittaut M, Bozhkov PV, Brady NR, Brancolini C, Brech A, Brenman JE, Brennand A, Bresnick EH, Brest P, Bridges D, Bristol ML, Brookes PS, Brown EJ, Brumell JH, Brunetti-Pierri N, Brunk UT, Bulman DE, Bultman SJ, Bultynck G, Burbulla LF, Bursch W, Butchar JP, Buzgariu W, Bydlowski SP, Cadwell K, Cahová M, Cai D, Cai J, Cai Q, Calabretta B, Calvo-Garrido J, Camougrand N, Campanella M, Campos-Salinas J, Candi E, Cao L, Caplan AB, Carding SR, Cardoso SM, Carew JS, Carlin CR, Carmignac V, Carneiro LA, Carra S, Caruso RA, Casari G, Casas C, Castino R, Cebollero E, Cecconi F, Celli J, Chaachouay H, Chae HJ, Chai CY, Chan DC, Chan EY, Chang RC, Che CM, Chen CC, Chen GC, Chen GQ, Chen M, Chen Q, Chen SS, Chen W, Chen X, Chen X, Chen X, Chen YG, Chen Y, Chen Y, Chen YJ, Chen Z, Cheng A, Cheng CH, Cheng Y, Cheong H, Cheong JH, Cherry S, Chess-Williams R, Cheung ZH, Chevet E, Chiang HL, Chiarelli R, Chiba T, Chin LS, Chiou SH, Chisari FV, Cho CH, Cho DH, Choi AM, Choi D, Choi KS, Choi ME, Chouaib S, Choubey D, Choubey V, Chu CT, Chuang TH, Chueh SH, Chun T, Chwae YJ, Chye ML, Ciarcia R, Ciriolo MR, Clague MJ, Clark RS, Clarke PG, Clarke R, Codogno P, Coller HA, Colombo MI, Comincini S, Condello M, Condorelli F, Cookson MR, Coombs GH, Coppens I, Corbalan R, Cossart P, Costelli P, Costes S, Coto-Montes A, Couve E, Coxon FP, Cregg JM, Crespo JL, Cronjé MJ, Cuervo AM, Cullen JJ, Czaja MJ, D'Amelio M, Darfeuille-Michaud A, Davids LM, Davies FE, De Felici M, de Groot JF, de Haan CA, De Martino L, De Milito A, De Tata V, Debnath J, Degterev A, Dehay B, Delbridge LM, Demarchi F, Deng YZ, Dengjel J, Dent P, Denton D, Deretic V, Desai SD, Devenish RJ, Di Gioacchino M, Di Paolo G, Di Pietro C, Díaz-Araya G, Díaz-Laviada I, Diaz-Meco MT, Diaz-Nido J, Dikic I, Dinesh-Kumar SP, Ding WX, Distelhorst CW, Diwan A, Djavaheri-Mergny M, Dokudovskaya S, Dong Z, Dorsey FC, Dosenko V, Dowling JJ, Doxsey S, Dreux M, Drew ME, Duan Q, Duchosal MA, Duff K, Dugail I, Durbeej M, Duszenko M, Edelstein CL, Edinger AL, Egea G, Eichinger L, Eissa NT, Ekmekcioglu S, El-Deiry WS, Elazar Z, Elgendy M, Ellerby LM, Eng KE, Engelbrecht AM, Engelender S, Erenpreisa J, Escalante R, Esclatine A, Eskelinen EL, Espert L, Espina V, Fan H, Fan J, Fan QW, Fan Z, Fang S, Fang Y, Fanto M, Fanzani A, Farkas T, Farré JC, Faure M, Fechheimer M, Feng CG, Feng J, Feng Q, Feng Y, Fésüs L, Feuer R, Figueiredo-Pereira ME, Fimia GM, Fingar DC, Finkbeiner S, Finkel T, Finley KD, Fiorito F, Fisher EA, Fisher PB, Flajolet M, Florez-McClure ML, Florio S, Fon EA, Fornai F, Fortunato F, Fotedar R, Fowler DH, Fox HS, Franco R, Frankel LB, Fransen M, Fuentes JM, Fueyo J, Fujii J, Fujisaki K, Fujita E, Fukuda M, Furukawa RH, Gaestel M, Gailly P, Gajewska M, Galliot B, Galy V, Ganesh S, Ganetzky B, Ganley IG, Gao FB, Gao GF, Gao J, Garcia L, Garcia-Manero G, Garcia-Marcos M, Garmyn M, Gartel AL, Gatti E, Gautel M, Gawriluk TR, Gegg ME, Geng J, Germain M, Gestwicki JE, Gewirtz DA, Ghavami S, et al| | PubMed
    6. The bumpy road of genomic medicine in transplantation: lessons from studies on calcineurin inhibitor nephrotoxicity.
      Naesens M, Kuypers D, Sarwal MM| | PubMed
    7. Tolerance and withdrawal of immunosuppressive drugs in patients given kidney and hematopoietic cell transplants.
      Scandling JD, Busque S, Dejbakhsh-Jones S, Benike C, Sarwal M, Millan MT, Shizuru JA, Lowsky R, Engleman EG, Strober S| | PubMed
    8. A common peripheral blood gene set for diagnosis of operational tolerance in pediatric and adult liver transplantation.
      Li L, Wozniak LJ, Rodder S, Heish S, Talisetti A, Wang Q, Esquivel C, Cox K, Chen R, McDiarmid SV, Sarwal MM| | PubMed
    9. Non-HLA antibodies to immunogenic epitopes predict the evolution of chronic renal allograft injury.
      Sigdel TK, Li L, Tran TQ, Khatri P, Naesens M, Sansanwal P, Dai H, Hsieh SC, Sarwal MM| | PubMed
    10. Cell-free DNA as a measure of transplant injury.
      Sigdel TK, Sarwal MM| | PubMed