Sang-Mo Kang, MD
Professor
Surgery
School of Medicine

Kang maintains a research laboratory focused on understanding how the immune system responds to transplanted organs. He investigates new methods to induce transplant-specific tolerance, with the goal of replacing immunosuppressive medications. He has been awarded research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

Kang earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School and completed a surgical residency and transplant fellowship at UCSF Medical Center. He received two research fellowships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which he used to study transplant immunology at the NIH and the UCSF Transplantation Research Laboratory.

Kang teaches fellows, residents and medical students at UCSF.

• Long-Term Safety, Immunologic Response, and Imaging Outcomes following Neural Stem Cell Transplantation for Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease.
  Stem cell reports 2019 Gupta N, Henry RG, Kang SM, Strober J, Lim DA, Ryan T, Perry R, Farrell J, Ulman M, Rajalingam R, Gage A, Huhn SL, Barkovich AJ, Rowitch DH
• Inferior long-term graft survival after end-to-side reconstruction for two renal arteries in living donor renal transplantation.
  PloS one 2018 Yamanaga S, Rosario A, Fernandez D, Kobayashi T, Tavakol M, Stock PG, Kang SM
• A Single Perioperative Injection of Dexamethasone Decreases Nausea, Vomiting, and Pain after Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy.
  Journal of transplantation 2017 Yamanaga S, Posselt AM, Freise CE, Kobayashi T, Tavakol M, Kang SM
• Interpretation of transplant biopsies and immune responses following Treg cell therapy.
  Current opinion in organ transplantation 2014 Tang Q, Kang SM
• Neural stem cell engraftment and myelination in the human brain.
  Science translational medicine 2012 Gupta N, Henry RG, Strober J, Kang SM, Lim DA, Bucci M, Caverzasi E, Gaetano L, Mandelli ML, Ryan T, Perry R, Farrell J, Jeremy RJ, Ulman M, Huhn SL, Barkovich AJ, Rowitch DH
• Altered balance between effector T cells and FOXP3+ HELIOS+ regulatory T cells after thymoglobulin induction in kidney transplant recipients.
  Transplant international : official journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation 2012 Tang Q, Leung J, Melli K, Lay K, Chuu EL, Liu W, Bluestone JA, Kang SM, Peddi VR, Vincenti F
• CD4(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T cell therapy in transplantation.
  Journal of molecular cell biology 2011 Tang Q, Bluestone JA, Kang SM
• Expansion of a unique CD57⁺NKG2Chi natural killer cell subset during acute human cytomegalovirus infection.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2011 Lopez-Vergès S, Milush JM, Schwartz BS, Pando MJ, Jarjoura J, York VA, Houchins JP, Miller S, Kang SM, Norris PJ, Nixon DF, Lanier LL
• Experience with laparoscopic donor nephrectomy among more than 1000 cases: low complication rates, despite more challenging cases.
  Archives of surgery (Chicago, Ill. : 1960) 2011 Ahearn AJ, Posselt AM, Kang SM, Roberts JP, Freise CE
• Hepatic surgery at a VA tertiary medical center: lessons learned.
  American journal of surgery 2010 Alemi F, Kwon E, Freise C, Kang SM, Hirose R, Stewart L, Corvera CU
• A new T-cell receptor transgenic model of the CD4+ direct pathway: level of priming determines acute versus chronic rejection.
  Transplantation 2008 Brennan TV, Hoang V, Garrod KR, Liu FC, Hayden T, Kim J, Kang SM
• The activating immunoreceptor NKG2D and its ligands are involved in allograft transplant rejection.
  Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2007 Kim J, Chang CK, Hayden T, Liu FC, Benjamin J, Hamerman JA, Lanier LL, Kang SM
• Investigating the immunological mechanisms underlying organ transplant rejection.
  Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE 2007 Kang SM
• Small bowel transplantation in mice.
  Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE 2007 Liu F, Kang SM
• Heterotopic heart transplantation in mice.
  Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE 2007 Liu F, Kang SM
• Targeted lymphoid homing of dendritic cells is required for prolongation of allograft survival.
  Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2006 Garrod KR, Chang CK, Liu FC, Brennan TV, Foster RD, Kang SM
• More than 500 consecutive laparoscopic donor nephrectomies without conversion or repeated surgery.
  Archives of surgery (Chicago, Ill. : 1960) 2005 Melcher ML, Carter JT, Posselt A, Duh QY, Stoller M, Freise CE, Kang SM
• Laparoscopic procurement of kidneys with multiple renal arteries is associated with increased ureteral complications in the recipient.
  American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons 2005 Carter JT, Freise CE, McTaggart RA, Mahanty HD, Kang SM, Chan SH, Feng S, Roberts JP, Posselt AM
• Laparoscopic right donor nephrectomy: a large single-center experience.
  Transplantation 2004 Posselt AM, Mahanty H, Kang SM, Stoller ML, Meng MV, Roberts JP, Freise CE
• Congenital choledochal cysts in adults.
  Archives of surgery (Chicago, Ill. : 1960) 2004 Visser BC, Suh I, Way LW, Kang SM
• Technique, indications and outcomes of pure laparoscopic right donor nephrectomy.
  The Journal of urology 2004 Abrahams HM, Freise CE, Kang SM, Stoller ML, Meng MV
• Excellent short-term results with steroid-free maintenance immunosuppression in low-risk simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation.
  Archives of surgery (Chicago, Ill. : 1960) 2003 Freise CE, Kang SM, Feng S, Hirose R, Stock P
• Techniques to optimize vascular control during laparoscopic donor nephrectomy.
  Urology 2003 Meng MV, Freise CE, Kang SM, Duh QY, Stoller ML