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
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
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
- KIDney Injury in Times of COVID-19 (KIDCOV) (NCT04705766)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
In the News
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
Research Pathways
Publications
- Natural Killer Cell Phenotypes and Clinical Outcomes in Pediatric Kidney Transplantation.| | PubMed
- Gene expression-based molecular scoring of pancreas transplant rejection for a quantitative assessment of rejection severity and resistance to treatment.| | PubMed
- Organ Donation and Transplantation Registries Across the Globe: A Review of the Current State.| | PubMed
- The Banff 2022 Kidney Meeting Work Plan: Data-driven refinement of the Banff Classification for renal allografts.| | PubMed
- Proteome Analysis for Inflammation Related to Acute and Convalescent Infection.| | PubMed
- Urine trumps the protocol biopsy for subclinical rejection surveillance.| | PubMed
- Transcriptional and spatial profiling of the kidney allograft unravels a central role for FcyRIII+ innate immune cells in rejection.| | PubMed
- Plasma proteome perturbation for CMV DNAemia in kidney transplantation.| | PubMed
- Perturbations in podocyte transcriptome and biological pathways induced by FSGS associated circulating factors.| | PubMed
- Longitudinal serum proteomics analyses identify unique and overlapping host response pathways in Lyme disease and West Nile virus infection.| | PubMed