Research Summary

Dr. John Roberts is a surgeon with expertise that includes kidney, liver and pancreas transplants. He is also an expert in surgically managing liver diseases, such as portal hypertension (high blood pressure in the vein going from the digestive organs to the liver), as well as in liver surgery for cancer.

Roberts is one of the few surgeons in the U.S. who has extensive experience in performing the Rex shunt – a procedure that restores normal blood flow to the liver – in children and adults. He also has spearheaded an effort to expand the use of living donors for liver transplantation, one of his many projects to make more organs available.

Roberts earned his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego and completed a surgical residency at the University of Washington. He also served as a postdoctoral fellow in transplantation in the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

Roberts joined UCSF Medical Center in 1988. In addition to his leadership of the transplant service, he teaches medical students and supervises the training of surgical residents.

Roberts has won numerous awards and has received grants from the National Institutes of Health for his research. He has produced nearly 170 papers on topics that include organ transplant rejection, immunogenicity (ability of a substance to provoke an immune response) and immunosuppression (intentionally subduing immune response to lower the chance of organ rejection).

Roberts speaks nationally on transplant issues. He is a fellow of the American Surgical Association and a member of many professional organizations.

Research Funding

  • January 1, 1993 - December 31, 1997 - TRANSPLANTATION AND HEPATOTOXINS FOR LIVER CANCER , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R29CA058696

Education

Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, BS, 1976, Biology
University of California, San Diego, CA, MD, 1980, Medicine
University of Washington, Seattle, Surgery Resident, 1980-83
Cornell University, New York, Research Fellow, 1983-85
University of Washington, Seattle, Surgery Resident, 1985-86
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Transplant Fellow, 1986-87

Honors & Awards

  • 1991
    Chief Resident Teaching Award, Department of Surgery, UCSF
  • 1992
    Chief Resident Teaching Award, Department of Surgery, UCSF

Selected Publications

  1. Bragg-Gresham JL, Peters TG, Vaughan WP, Held P, McCormick F, Roberts JP. The Cost of Procuring Deceased Donor Livers: Evidence From US Organ Procurement Organization Cost Reports, 2013-2018. Clin Transplant. 2024 Sep; 38(9):e15452.  View on PubMed
  2. Xu K, Dor A, Mohanty S, Han J, Parvathinathan G, Braggs-Gresham JL, Held PJ, Roberts JP, Vaughan W, Tan JC, Scandling JD, Chertow GM, Busque S, Cheng XS. The Medical Costs of Determining Eligibility and Waiting for a Kidney Transplantation. Med Care. 2024 Aug 01; 62(8):521-529.  View on PubMed
  3. Fung M, La Hoz RM, Durand CM, Lee DH, Sears D, Hohe C, Chin-Hong P, Roberts JP. Successful living donor liver transplant from donor with false-positive human immunodeficiency virus test in recipient without human immunodeficiency virus. Am J Transplant. 2024 Sep; 24(9):1706-1707.  View on PubMed
  4. Bragg-Gresham J, Licon AL, Kiryakos J, Saran R, Roberts JP. Rate of Deceased Kidney Donation From Potential In-Hospital Deaths in the US, 2003-2021. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 03 04; 7(3):e241865.  View on PubMed
  5. Peters TG, Fung JJ, Radcliffe-Richards J, Satel S, Roth AE, McCormick F, Gershun M, Matas AJ, Roberts JP, Morrison J, Chertow GM, Lee LD, Held PJ, Ojo A. Report From a Multidisciplinary Symposium on the Future of Living Kidney Donor Transplantation. Prog Transplant. 2023 12; 33(4):363-371.  View on PubMed
  6. Edwards AL, Tavakol MM, Mello A, Kerney J, Roberts JP. Pretransplantation coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination requirements: A matched case-control study of factors associated with waitlist inactivation. Am J Transplant. 2024 Jan; 24(1):134-140.  View on PubMed
  7. Long JJ, Motter JD, Jackson KR, Chen J, Orandi BJ, Montgomery RA, Stegall MD, Jordan SC, Benedetti E, Dunn TB, Ratner LE, Kapur S, Pelletier RP, Roberts JP, Melcher ML, Singh P, Sudan DL, Posner MP, El-Amm JM, Shapiro R, Cooper M, Verbesey JE, Lipkowitz GS, Rees MA, Marsh CL, Sankari BR, Gerber DA, Wellen JR, Bozorgzadeh A, Gaber AO, Heher EC, Weng FL, Djamali A, Helderman JH, Concepcion BP, Brayman KL, Oberholzer J, Kozlowski T, Covarrubias K, Massie AB, McAdams-DeMarco MA, Segev DL, Garonzik-Wang JM. Characterizing the risk of human leukocyte antigen-incompatible living donor kidney transplantation in older recipients. Am J Transplant. 2023 12; 23(12):1980-1989.  View on PubMed
  8. Meier RPH, Nunez M, Syed SM, Feng S, Tavakol M, Freise CE, Roberts JP, Ascher NL, Hirose R, Roll GR. DCD liver transplant in patients with a MELD over 35. Front Immunol. 2023; 14:1246867.  View on PubMed
  9. Ivanics T, Claasen MPAW, Samstein B, Emond JC, Fox AN, Pomfret E, Pomposelli J, Tabrizian P, Florman SS, Mehta N, Roberts JP, Emamaullee JA, Genyk Y, Hernandez-Alejandro R, Tomiyama K, Sasaki K, Hashimoto K, Nagai S, Abouljoud M, Olthoff KM, Hoteit MA, Heimbach J, Taner T, Liapakis AH, Mulligan DC, Sapisochin G, Halazun KJ, North American Living Liver Donor Innovation Group (NALLDIG). Living Donor Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Within and Outside Traditional Selection Criteria: A Multicentric North American Experience. Ann Surg. 2024 01 01; 279(1):104-111.  View on PubMed
  10. Dixon W, Sheetz K, Adelmann D, Bokoch M, Reddy M, Kothari R, Roberts JP, Syed S, Feng S, Roll G. Real-world implementation of normothermic machine perfusion: A detailed analysis of intraoperative and early postoperative impact. Clin Transplant. 2023 10; 37(10):e15049.  View on PubMed
  11. Ascher NL, Roberts JP. Comments on Experience With Establishing a Robotic Donor Hepatectomy Program for Pediatric Liver Transplantation. Transplantation. 2023 Dec 01; 107(12):2458-2459.  View on PubMed
  12. Nunez M, Praglin CR, Torres AM, Agudelo EZ, Braun HJ, Huang CY, Syed S, Roberts JP, Roll GR. Steroid Avoidance After Adult Living Donor Liver Transplant: A Cohort Analysis. Transplant Direct. 2023 Jun; 9(6):e1488.  View on PubMed
  13. Emamaullee J, Heimbach JK, Olthoff KM, Pomfret EA, Roberts JP, Selzner N, NALLDIG Consortium. Corrigendum to 'Assessment of long-term outcomes post living liver donation highlights the importance of scientific integrity when presenting transplant registry data' [American Journal of Transplantation. Volume 22, Issue 6, March 2023, Pages 1519-1522]. Am J Transplant. 2023 May; 23(5):695.  View on PubMed
  14. Jesse MT, Jackson WE, Liapakis A, Ganesh S, Humar A, Goldaracena N, Levitsky J, Mulligan D, Pomfret EA, Ladner DP, Roberts JP, Mavis A, Thiessen C, Trotter J, Winder GS, Griesemer AD, Pillai A, Kumar V, Verna EC, LaPointe Rudow D, Han HH, AST LDLT Consensus Conference Working Group. Living donor liver transplant candidate and donor selection and engagement: Meeting report from the living donor liver transplant consensus conference. Clin Transplant. 2023 07; 37(7):e14954.  View on PubMed
  15. Cheah YL, Heimbach J, Kwon CHD, Pomposelli J, Rudow DL, Broering D, Spiro M, Raptis DA, Roberts JP, ERAS4OLT.org Working Group. Influence of surgical technique in donor hepatectomy on immediate and short-term living donor outcomes - A systematic review of the literature, meta-analysis, and expert panel recommendations. Clin Transplant. 2022 Oct; 36(10):e14703.  View on PubMed
  16. Perito ER, Roberts JP. Editorial: Optimizing Outcomes for Children Requires Ensuring Access to Living: Donor and Split Liver Transplants. Transplantation. 2022 09 01; 106(9):1736-1737.  View on PubMed
  17. McCormick F, Held PJ, Chertow GM, Peters TG, Roberts JP. Projecting the Economic Impact of Compensating Living Kidney Donors in the United States: Cost-Benefit Analysis Demonstrates Substantial Patient and Societal Gains. Value Health. 2022 12; 25(12):2028-2033.  View on PubMed
  18. Chen AK, Lunow-Luke T, Yamaguchi S, Praglin C, Agudelo E, Mehta N, Dirks R, Braun HJ, Gardner JM, Roberts JP, Syed SM, Roll GR. Nodular Regenerative Hyperplasia After Liver Transplant; It's All in the Presentation. Front Surg. 2022; 9:876818.  View on PubMed
  19. Simões EAF, Center KJ, Tita ATN, Swanson KA, Radley D, Houghton J, McGrory SB, Gomme E, Anderson M, Roberts JP, Scott DA, Jansen KU, Gruber WC, Dormitzer PR, Gurtman AC. Prefusion F Protein-Based Respiratory Syncytial Virus Immunization in Pregnancy. N Engl J Med. 2022 04 28; 386(17):1615-1626.  View on PubMed
  20. Emamaullee J, Heimbach JK, Olthoff KM, Pomfret EA, Roberts JP, Selzner N, NALLDIG Consortium*. Assessment of long-term outcomes post living liver donation highlights the importance of scientific integrity when presenting transplant registry data. Am J Transplant. 2022 06; 22(6):1519-1522.  View on PubMed

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