Dr. Amaral's research is focused on kidney transplantation with particular interests in reducing treatment burden for adolescents and young adults — from designing studies to make daily medication regimens easier to diagnosing transplant injury earlier using innovative, noninvasive approaches.

She is currently the principal investigator of U-REAACT, a text messaging intervention to promote treatment adherence in youth with kidney transplants and spina bifida. She is also co-principal investigator of an international study, VIRTUUS, to validate urinary biomarker signals associated with rejection and infections in children with kidney transplants.