People

Mechanical loads manifest into strains within tissues and interfaces of an organ. Strains within tissues are transduced by the cells to produce the needed extracellular matrix proteins to meet functional demands. This is the general philosophy of research in my laboratory which is within the Division of Biomaterials and Bioengineering. Our lab has a strong focus on mechanics, materials, and investigating adaptation of tissues/interfaces through spatiotemporal mapping of “mechano-responsiveness”.

Professor in Residence, Surgery, Division of MultiOrgan Transplantation, UCSF
Professor, Medicine, Pediatrics, UCSF
Medical Director (interim), Kidney-Pancreas Transplant Program, UCSF
Director, Precision Transplant Medicine, SarwalLab, UCSF
Co-Director, T32 Training Grant, Transplant Surgery, UCSF
Capstone Mentor, Masters in Translational Medicine, Berkeley/UCSF
Consulting Professor, Haas, University of California, Berkeley
Professor, Immunology, Peds, Surgery (1997-2012), Stanford University

My clinical and research efforts continue to be centered around the treatment and understanding the pathogenesis of urinary stone disease. I have recently identified zinc as a critical factor in the early mineralization process. We utilized the synchrotron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories to identify non-trace amounts of zinc in Randall plaques (early human urinary stones) and in our recent Drosophila fly model. By knocking out specific zinc transporters in our first fruit fly model we were able to demonstrate that stone development dramatically decreases.