University of California San Francisco

Research

Sensitive and effective biomarkers that are helpful in timely diagnosis of different diseases are unmet need. Rapid progress in high throughput molecular screening methods and developments in bioinformatics tools in recent years have provided us with new tools in basic and clinical research. Yet current status of availability of effective biomarkers and their use in clinical setting is far from satisfactory. The goal of the Sarwal lab is to identify potentially important diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic markers for disease diagnosis, monitoring and therapeutic intervention if necessary. However, discovery of a true biomarker is more efficient with proper understanding of disease mechanism. Therefore, our goal is to unravel the injury causes and mechanisms in diseases. In addition, we aim to discover and validate clinically applicable biomarkers by using powerful state-of-the-art methods and bioinformatics.

Clinical & Translational Research

Cystinosis Research, A Rare Autosomal Recessive Lysosomal Storage Disorder
Cystinosis and impaired autophagy/Mitophagy: Cystinosis is a rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder caused by the mutations in the CTNS gene encoding the lysosomal membrane transporter cystinosin, resulting in the accumulation of toxic metabolite cysteine in the cells. Continuous cystine ...  Read More
KIDCOV - Assessment of Kidney Injury in Non-Hospitalized in the COVID-19 Pandemic
This is a study about Kidney Function and the effects of COVID. The project is led by an outstanding team of clinicians and researchers across five academic medical/research centers from the University of California system, Rush University, and the University ...  Read More
The Need for Personalized Medicine
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Sensitive and effective biomarkers for different diseases are unmet need. Evolution in high throughput molecular screening methods and developments in bioinformatics tools in recent years have made it possible to conduct comprehensive biomarker discovery efforts in different diseases including organ ...  Read More

Organ Transplantation Research

Gene Expression Analysis of Bone Marrow Transplants and Validation of Gene Footprints for Graft vs Host Disease
GVHD is a clinical problem that has no predictive markers and is a source of high morbidity and mortality for the recipient. Our Lab has used microarrays and QPCR to find a novel gene panel in peripheral blood that can ...  Read More
Gene Expression Analysis of Solid Organ Transplants and Validation of Gene Footprints for Transplant Rejection and Tolerance
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Although recent advances in immunosuppression therapy have enhanced short-term outcome; acute rejection remains an important risk factor for allograft failure. Current management of a transplant patient requires a tissue biopsy as a gold standard for diagnosis, though the process remains ...  Read More
Integrated Bioinformatics in Organ Transplantation
Name Integrated-Bioinformatics-in-Organ-Transplantation
We are conducting a large-scale genome-wide screening study across injury datasets in organ transplantation, using highly annotated genomic and proteomic datasets in the Sarwal Lab as well as within the public domain. With our expertise in translational bioinformatics to integrate ...  Read More
Integrative Approaches to Understanding Chronic Allograft Injury
Chronic allograft injury (CAI) is a poorly understood process of accelerated histological injury in the allograft that results in accelerated functional decline and is the major cause of transplanted kidney loss. We have taken an innovative 3 pronged integrated analysis ...  Read More
Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP)
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The Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP) is focused on finding new ways to treat acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). We will be obtaining kidney tissues from individuals volunteering to participate in KPMP. The tissue will be ...  Read More
Proteome and Peptidome Analysis of Serum and Urine of Organ Transplant Patients to Develop Protein Panels for Specific Transplant Injury Phenotypes
Proteome-and-Peptidome-Analysis-of-Serum-and-Urine-of-Organ-Transplant-Patients
Urine analysis has a unique advantage in kidney transplantation as it reflects graft injury events that occur in the kidney. Non-invasive urinary biomarker identification, specific and sensitive for graft injury diagnosis and prognosis, would eliminate serial protocol biopsies, advance allograft ...  Read More