BioGPS has become the valuable resource that it is because of the contributions from our wonderful user community. Thank you for contributing plugins, suggestions, and ideas–all of which have improved BioGPS for everyone. In order to celebrate the contributions of BioGPS users to the scientific research community, this series will feature publications and articles generated by BioGPS users. We sincerely hope you will join us in celebrating the fascinating work that YOU do.
This week, we will feature an article from a team of researchers investigating the complicated and critical issue of acute organ transplant rejection: The kSORT Assay to Detect Renal Transplant Patients at High Risk for Acute Rejection: Results of the Multicenter AART Study by Silke Roedder, Tara Sigdel, Nathan Salomonis, Sue Hsieh, Hong Dai, Oriol Bestard, Diana Metes, Andrea Zeevi, Albin Gritsch, Jennifer Cheeseman, Camila Macedo, Ram Peddy, Mara Medeiros, Flavio Vincenti, Nancy Asher, Oscar Salvatierra, Ron Shapiro, Allan Kirk, Elaine Reed, and Minnie M. Sarwal.
Dr. Minnie Sarwal kindly took the time to answered our inquiries for this series.
- Who is the team behind the work that was published in The kSORT Assay to Detect Renal Transplant Patients at High Risk for Acute Rejection: Results of the Multicenter AART Study?.
Minnie Sarwal, the members of the Sarwal Lab at UCSF, specifically Tara Sigdel and Silkie Roedder, and Organ-I, a company spun out of Stanford University
- What inspired the work published in The kSORT Assay to Detect Renal Transplant Patients at High Risk for Acute Rejection: Results of the Multicenter AART Study?
The critical unmet need exists to monitor the alloimmune risk of transplant patients in a non-invasive and predictive manner. No assay existed to allow this prior to the development of kSORT. Using kSORT will offer educated immunosuppression dosing to alloimmune risk scores (risk of transplant rejection being either high or low) and the predictive nature of this assay (predicting rejection 3-4 months prior to any current measured change in function) will allow for drug titration to prevent rejection.
- Please provide a brief summary of the findings reported in your article, The kSORT Assay to Detect Renal Transplant Patients at High Risk for Acute Rejection: Results of the Multicenter AART Study
The kSORT assay is a multigene blood QPCR assay across 17 target genes, that provide an output of a customized risk score for acute rejection. The assay has been tested and validated in 2 large multicenter trials in kidney transplantation. kSORT is highly specific and sensitive for the detection and prediction of acute renal transplant rejection.
- How did the team learn about BioGPS?
As part of the genomic research initiatives in the Sarwal Lab
- How did your team utilize BioGPS in this research?
BioGPS data was used to evaluate the cell specific enrichment of the kSORT genes, which was found to be in monocytes.
- What are some future directions for the team behind this research?
The kSORT assay is being made commercially available to kidney transplant patients in the US, EU and Asia through Immucor, and is being currently utilized in 2 prospective RCT.
Thanks again to Dr. Minnie Sarwal for taking the time to answer our questions. Click here to read their fascinating article. Have a look because these awesome researchers have made their compelling research open access–so you can read the whole exciting article for free!
Used BioGPS and cited it in your publication? Let us know! We would love to feature YOUR work, no matter how long ago it was published. BioGPS Featured Article Series only started recently, but we know your contributions to science is ongoing.