News & Events

UCSF News reports on the research of the Willenbring Lab and others demonstrating in mice that healthy new liver cells could be generated within the organ itself, thus making engraftment unnecessary. The article noted that the very cells that drive liver disease were converted, thereby reducing liver damage and improving liver function simultaneously. The study was recently reported on in a paper published by the journal Cell Stem Cell.  Advances in stem cell research have made it possible to convert patients' skin cells into heart cells, kidney cells, liver cells and more in the lab dish, [...]

Nikolaos Skartsis M.D., Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the UCSF Sarwal Lab, was the recipient of a 2016 Research Fellowship Award from the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) for his project, "The protective role of SPI6 in adoptively transferred regulatory T cells in transplantation". His group will be investigating the protective role of SPI6 in adoptively transferred T regs used to promote transplantation tolerance. Dissecting the homeostatic mechanisms of regulatory T cells may address key issues related to transplantation tolerance induction through T reg [...]

The  UCSF Kidney Transplant Program Update in Transplantation 2016 will be held Friday, June 3-4, 2016 at the Silverado in Napa, CA. The symposium will cover the latest developments in kidney transplantation presented by experts in the fields of transplant surgery, nephology, and pathology.

The San Francisco Chronicle online (SFGate.com) reports on the resumption of the iving kidney donor transplant program at UCSF. The donor died in November, shortly after the surgery to remove a kidney given to his sister. Excerpts of that story appear below with a link to the full story. UCSF Medical Center has received the go-ahead to resume its living kidney donor transplant program after suspending it in December following the unusual death of a donor, hospital officials said Wednesday.  The donor died in November, shortly after the surgery to remove a kidney to give to his [...]

Joshua Y. Yang, B.S., Michael C. Nasr, B.S., and Tyler Schmeckpeper B.S., Master of Translational Medicine (MTM), graduate student researchers in the Sarwal Lab, were recently invited to attend the 9th annual Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) 2016 at UC Berkeley on April 1-3, 2016, and selected as presenters to disucss their work. The MTM program, a cross-campus collaboration between two University of California campuses—San Francisco and Berkeley, and launched with the help of CTSI, is among the first educational programs of its kind aimed at accelerating the translation of [...]

UCSF News reports on a clinical trial, BENEFIT (Belatacept Evaluation of Nephroprotection and Efficacy as First-line Immunosuppression Trial) where for the first time, an immunosuppressive agent,  Belatacept, showed better organ survival in kidney transplant recipients than a calcineurin inhibitor, the current standard of care. The study was reported on in the January 28th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine by lead author, Flavio Vincenti, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine and Surgery in the Departments of Medicine and Surgery, and other researchers. For the first time, an [...]

The Transplantation Society and the Cell Transplant Society honored Gaetano Faleo, Ph.D. an Associate Specialist in the Tang Lab, with its TTS-CTS Scientific Award, providing him a grant to attend the 2015 Joint Congress of the IPITA-IXA-CTS in Melbourne, Australia:  The Transplantation Society and the Cell Transplant Society, we wish  to congratulate you on receiving a TTSECTS Scientific Award to attend the 2015  Joint Congress of the IPITAEIXAECTS in Melbourne, Australia. 

UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital have launched a new publication, "Transplant News", providing "a more comprehensive approach to communicating the latest breakthroughs available to the patients and families we serve" in the words of John P. Roberts, M.D., Professor and Chief of the UCSF Division of Transplant Surgery and the Transplant Service at UCSF Medical Center.  The inaugural issue includes the following stories: A Passion for Quality: An Interview with Transplant Surgeon Ryutaro Hirose UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco Opens at Mission [...]

UCSF News reports on the latest developments in the quest to create a surgically implantable artificial kidney and the award of a $6 million NIH grant to a research team led by Shuvo Roy, Ph.D., Professor of Bioengineering & Surgery, Director of the Biodesign Laboratory at Mission Bay, and Engineering Director of the UCSF Surgical Innovations Program, and Vanderbilt University nephrologist William Fissell, MD. Development of a surgically implantable, artificial kidney – a promising alternative to kidney transplantation or dialysis for people with end-stage kidney disease – has received [...]

Minnie M. Sarwal M.D., Ph.D., FRCP, DCH will speak at the 10th annual PMWC Conference in San Francisco that runs from January 24 - 27, 2016. Her talk will be on the use of molecular diagnostics in organ transplantation to better detect rejection, and improving the management of transplant patients  through proactively to preserve organ function. Dr. Sarwal has over 30 years of clinical experience and 25 years of research experience in translational immunogenetics, genomics, proteomics and informatics. She holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics from Cambridge University, under the mentorship of [...]

The UCSF Division of Transplant Surgery is pleased to announce that Garrett R. Roll, M.D., FACS, recently joined the division as Assistant Professor Of Clinical Surgery. Dr. Roll is a transplant surgeon specializing in kidney, liver and pancreas transplantation, and in hepatobiliary surgery. Dr. Roll attended Boston College as an undergraduate and received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency at UCSF, where he also completed a fellowship in abdominal transplant surgery. During his residency, Dr. Roll served as chief resident [...]

UCSF News reports on the celebration of Diversity Month 2015 at UCSF and the award of the Chancellor Diversity Award for the Advancement of Women to Nancy L. Ascher, M.D., Ph.D.: Nancy Ascher, MD, has been chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery for the past 16 years. Ascher completed her undergraduate and medical education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She completed a general surgery residency and clinical transplantation fellowship at the University of Minnesota after which she joined the faculty.She was recruited in 1988 by the UCSF Department of Surgery to build a liver [...]

NapaValleyRegister.com reports on the story of Harrison Schaufer, the recipient of a donor kidney at 22 months old, and his mother Annelise, his living donor. A patient at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco since birth, Harrison, and his mother have attended the annual UCSF Pediatric Transplant Picnic annually. This year Harrison was asked to speak at the event. Harrison Schaufel never shies away from the spotlight, so when he was invited to give a speech about his experiences as a kidney transplant recipient, he couldn't refuse. Schaufel's story is nothing short of [...]

The SF Examiner reports on the reunion of three UCSF pediatric transplant patients, now adults, whose own children now attend the picnic with them. Chris Mudge will never forget the three very sick children who awaited liver transplants in the early 1990s at UC San Francisco Medical Center at Parnassus. Back then, it was hard for Mudge, a pediatric transplant nurse practitioner at what was then UCSF's children's hospital, to imagine her patients all grown up and with their own offspring. But that was the scene at the 20th Annual Chris Mudge UCSF Pediatric Transplant Picnic reunion for [...]

The Division of Transplant Surgery and the Rishwain Family will host the inaugural Anthony B. Rishwain, MD Lecture in Transplantation Medicine.  The inaugural lecture will be given by Dr. Jennifer Doudna, Professor of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Principal Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The lecture is entitled, "CRISPR Biology and Technology: The Frontier of the Genome Engineering Revolution". Dr. Dounda was recently described in a NY Times article as a "a pioneer who helped simplify genome editing". The [...]

UCSF News reports on a just published study in the The New England Journal of Medicine in which mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors was found to significantly reduce delayed graft function in kidney transplant recipients compared with normal body temperature. The lead author of the study is Claus Niemann, MD, Professor of Anesthesia and Surgery at UCSF, and co-Director of the Ischemic Organ Injury Lab. The findings in the study could lead to an increase in the availability of kidneys for transplant. Mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors significantly reduces delayed graft [...]

The Department of Surgery has launched a new program, the Center for Hernia Repair and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction. Led by Hobart W. Harris, M.D., M.P.H., Professor and Chief of the Division of General Surgery, and Director of the Infection Injury and Immunity Lab, the multidisciplinary program provides state-of-the-art treatment for all types of hernias, from the most common to the most technically challenging, such as giant abdominal wall hernias, hernias arising from enterocutaneous fistulas, and complicated mesh-related infections related to recurrent hernias. Dr. Harris is a pioneer [...]

The American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) has awarded Qizhi Tang, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor in the Division of Transplant Surgery at UCSF, and Director of the Transplantation Research Laboratory and Tang Laboratory, was awarded a Faculty Research Grant for Biomarker Discovery and Functional Genomics, The details were published online by Transplant Genomics Inc. (TGI) which is the sponsor if the grant:  The American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) announced that Qizhi Tang, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has been awarded a Faculty Research Grant [...]

Members of the UCSF Transplant Surgery Program participated in National Donate Life Blue & Green Day, wearing the the commemorative blue and green colors, and showing their solidarity with the cause. During this day,the public is encouraged to wear blue and green, hold events and fundraisers, and partner with local restaurants, malls, media, and community organizations in an effort to promote the success of organ, eye and tissue transplantation and the need for registered donors.According to Donate Life America,  nearly 124,000 men, women and children are awaiting organ transplants in the [...]

The  20th Annual Chris Mudge Pediatric Transplant Picnic will take place McNears Beach in San Rafael, CA on Saturday, August 1, 2015. Attendees will be treated to music, dancing, kayaking, face-painting, pinatas, bubbles, and more.