Vishal Patel, M.D.

Biography

Vishal Patel, M.D., is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and a member of its Division of Nephrology. He specializes in polycystic kidney disease (PKD).

Originally from India, Dr. Patel received his medical degree from Pramukhswami Medical School in Gujarat. He then completed residency training in internal medicine at Northwestern University Medical School in Evanston, Illinois, and advanced training in nephrology through a fellowship program at UT Southwestern, where he also completed a fellowship in research.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in nephrology, he joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2009 as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in 2018 and to Professor with Tenure in 2023.

Dr. Patel's research focuses on understanding why polycystic kidney disease (PKD) develops and how it can be treated more effectively. His laboratory studies how RNA, the molecules that help control gene activity, regulates kidney development and disease. Over the past decade, his team has identified several RNA pathways that drive cyst growth in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) and has developed new strategies to restore the activity of the PKD1 gene, one of the primary genes involved in the disorder. Supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, his research has led to important discoveries in microRNA biology, RNA therapeutics, and gene regulation, which have been published in leading scientific journals. Dr. Patel's work has also produced several patented technologies, including anti-miR-17 and PKD1-targeted therapies designed to slow or prevent kidney cyst growth. These discoveries formed the foundation for farabursen, an experimental RNA-based treatment now being evaluated in clinical trials. Through both his scientific research and technological innovations, Dr. Patel has helped advance the development of precision therapies for inherited kidney diseases

Dr. Patel serves on the editorial board of Scientific Reports, and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for a number of other peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Cell Metabolism, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. In 2021, he served as guest editor of the Frontiers in Physiology special issue on non-coding RNAs, and in 2022 he served as guest editor of the Scientific Reports special collection on RNA therapeutics.

He is also an active member of the American Society of Nephrology.