Rebecca Sosa, PhD
Contact Information
Rebecca Sosa, PhD
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
Phone: 310-206-3216
Email: [email protected]
Academic Title
Assistant Clinical Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Education
PhD, University of Texas in San Antonio, 2013
Fellowship
University of California, Los Angeles, 2019
Bio
Dr. Rebecca A. Sosa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Assistant Director at the UCLA Immunogenetics Center (UIC), where she provides services to the solid organ and stem cell transplant communities through diagnostic testing and interpretation. Dr. Sosa earned her PhD in 2013 from the University of Texas in San Antonio in cellular immunology, where she became interested in the crosstalk between innate and adaptive immune responses in chronic subclinical inflammatory disease states. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 2019 at UCLA investigating the critical health care concern regarding ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in patients undergoing solid organ transplantation. During this time she further developed the technology to analyze three-dimensional cellular and molecular interactions within tissue samples, towards the investigation of major immune mediators of allograft injury. She completed a subsequent clinical fellowship in immunogenetics and histocompatibility at UIC in June 2019. Dr. Sosa has a passion for patient-oriented research and personalized medicine, and her current efforts are focused on investigating the crosstalk between IRI and alloimmunity, as well as uncovering the underlying immune mechanisms of disparities experienced by females and Hispanics in transplantation injury and outcomes.
Selected Publications
Sosa RA, Terry AQ, Kaldas FM, Jin YP, Rossetti M, Ito T, Li F, Ahn RS, Naini BV, Groysberg VM, Zheng Y, Aziz A, Nevarez-Mejia J, Zarrinpar A, Busuttil RW, Gjertson DW, Kupiec-Weglinski JW, Reed, EF. (2021) Disulfide-HMGB1 drives ischemia-reperfusion injury in human liver transplantation. Hepatology 73(3):1158-75.
Cone BD, Zhang JQ, Sosa RA, Calabrese F, Reed EF, Fishbein GF. (2021) Phosphorylated S6 ribosomal protein expression by immunohistochemistry correlates with de novo donor-specific HLA antibodies in lung allograft recipients. Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation 40(10):1164-71.
Kageyama S, Kadono K, Hirao H, Nakamura K, Ito T, Gjertson DW, Sosa RA, Reed EF, Kaldas FM, Busuttil RW, Kupiec-Weglinski JW, Zhai Y. (2021) Ischemia-reperfusion injury in allogeneic liver transplantation: a role of CD4 T cells in early allograft injury. Transplantation 105(9):1989-97.
Sosa RA, Rossetti M, Naini BV, Groysberg VM, Kaldas FM, Busuttil RW, Chang Y, Gjertson DW, Kupiec-Weglinski JW, Reed EF. (2020) Pattern recognition receptor-reactivity screening of liver transplant patients: potential for personalized and precise organ matching to reduce risks of ischemia-reperfusion injury. Annals of Surgery 271(5):922-31.
Wei X, Valenzuela NM, Rossetti M, Sosa RA, Nevarez-Mejia J, Fishbein GA, Mulder A, Dhar J, Keslar KS, Baldwin WM 3rd, Fairchild RL, Hou J, Reed EF. (2020) Antibody-induced vascular inflammation skews infiltrating macrophages to a novel remodeling phenotype in a model of transplant rejection. American Journal of Transplantation 20(10):2686-702.
Nakamura K, Kageyama S, Kaldas FM, Hirao H, Ito T, Kadono K, Dery KJ, Kojima H, Gjertson DW, Sosa RA, Kujawski M, Busuttil RW, Reed EF, Kupiec-Weglinkski JW. (2020) Hepatic CEACAM1 expression indicates donor liver quality and prevents early transplantation injury. Journal of Clinical Investigation 130(5):2689-704.
Kageyama S, Hirao H, Nakamura K, Ke B, Zhang M, Ito T, Aziz A, Oncel D, Kaldas FM, Busuttil RW, Sosa RA, Reed EF, Araujo JA, Kupiec-Weglinkski JW. (2019) Recipient HO-1 inducibility is essential for post-transplant hepatic HO-1 expression and graft protection: from bench-to-bedside. American Journal of Transplantation 19(2):356-367.
Kageyama S, Nakamura K, Fujii T, Ke B, Sosa RA, Reed EF, Datta N, Zarrinpar A, Busuttil RW, Kupiec-Weglinkski JW (2018) Recombinant relaxin protects liver transplants from ischemia damage via hepatocyte glucocorticoid receptor: from bench-to-bedside. Hepatology 68(1):258-73.
Nakamura K, Kageyama Yue S, Huang J, Fujii T, Ke B, Sosa RA, Reed EF, Datta N, Zarrinpar A, Busuttil RW, Kupiec-Weglinkski JW (2018) Heme oxygenase-1 regulates sirtuin-1-autophagy pathway in liver transplantation: from mouse-to-human. American Journal of Transplantation 18(5):1110-21.
Salehi S*, Sosa RA*, Jin YP, Fishbein MC, Rozengurt E, Kupiec-Weglinski JW, Reed EF. (2018) Outside-in HLA signaling regulates ICAM-1 clustering and endothelial-monocyte interactions via mTOR in antibody-mediated rejection. American Journal of Transplantation 18(5):1096-109. *authors contributed equally
Nakamura K, Zhang M, Kageyama S, Ke B, Fujii T, Sosa RA, Reed EF, Datta N, Zarrinpar A, Busuttil RW, Araujo JA, Kupiec-Weglinkski JW. (2017) Macrophage heme oxygenase-1-SIRT1-p53 axis regulates sterile in liver ischemia-reperfusion injury. Journal of Hepatology 67(6):1232-42.
Nakamura K, Kageyama S, Ke B, Fujii T, Sosa RA, Reed EF, Datta N, Zarrinpar A, Busuttil RW, Kupiec-Weglinkski J. (2017) Sirtuin 1 attenuates inflammation and hepatocellular damage in liver transplant ischemia-reperfusion: From mouse to human. Liver Transplantation 23(10):1282-93.
Sosa RA, Zarrinpar A, Rossetti M, Lassman, CR, Naini BV, Datta N, Rao P, Harre N, Zheng Y, Spreafico R, Hoffman A, Busuttil RW, Gjertson DW, Kupiec-Weglinski JW, Reed EF (2016) Early cytokine signatures of ischemia reperfusion injury in human orthotopic liver transplantation. JCI Insight 1(20):e89679.
Sosa RA, Murphey C, Robinson RR, Forsthuber TG. (2015) Interferon-gamma ameliorates autoimmune encephalomyelitis by limiting myelin lipid peroxidation. PNAS 112(36):E5038-47.
Sosa RA, Murphey C, Ji N, Cardona AE, Forsthuber TG. (2013) The kinetics of myelin antigen uptake by antigen presenting cells in the central nervous system during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Journal of Immunology 191(12):5848-57.
Sosa RA, Forsthuber TG. (2011) The critical role of antigen-presentation-induced cytokine crosstalk in the central nervous system in multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research 31(10):753-68.
Ji N, Sosa RA, Forsthuber TG. (2011) More than just a T-box: the role of T-bet as a possible biomarker and therapeutic target in autoimmune diseases. Immunotherapy 3(3):435-41.