Independent Labs, Institutes, and Centers (Dean of Research)


Showing 121-130 of 136 Results

  • Andrew D. Huberman

    Andrew D. Huberman

    Associate Professor of Neurobiology and, by courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsIn 2017, we developed a virtual reality platform to investigate the neural and autonomic mechanisms contributing to fear and anxiety. That involved capturing 360-degree videos of various fear-provoking situations in real life for in-lab VR movies, such as heights and claustrophobia, as well as unusual scenarios like swimming in open water with great white sharks. The primary objective of our VR platform is to develop new tools to help people better manage stress, anxiety and phobias in real-time, as an augment to in-clinic therapies.

    In May 2018, we reported the discovery of two novel mammalian brain circuits as a Research Article published in Nature. One circuit promotes fear and anxiety-induced paralysis, while the other fosters confrontational reactions to threats. This led to ongoing research into the involvement of these brain regions in anxiety-related disorders such as phobias and generalized anxiety in humans.

    In 2020, we embarked on a collaborative effort with Dr. David Spiegel's laboratory in the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, aimed to explore how specific respiration patterns synergize with the visual system to influence autonomic arousal and stress, and other brain states, including sleep.

    In 2023, the first results of that collaboration were published as a randomized controlled trial in Cell Reports Medicine, demonstrating that specific brief patterns of deliberate respiration are particularly effective in alleviating stress and enhancing mood, and improving sleep.

    In a 2021, our collaboration with Dr. Edward Chang, professor and chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), was published in Current Biology, revealing that specific patterns of insular cortex neural activity may be linked to, and potentially predict, anxiety responses.

  • Adrian Hugenmatter

    Adrian Hugenmatter

    Director of Protein Engineering

    BioDr. Adrian Hugenmatter joined ChEM-H in 2021 and is leading the Protein Therapeutics Knowledge Center. In this role he is also responsible for IMAs Protein Therapeutic module. Dr. Hugenmatter received his PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Donald Hilvert at the Swiss Federal Institute of Zurich (ETH Zurich, Switzerland), where he gained initial experience in enzymology, antibody engineering and directed evolution. Fascinated by protein engineering, he joined the laboratory of Prof. Dan Tawfik at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), where he studied molecular evolution and its application in protein design. Afterwards, Dr. Hugenmatter worked as a research scientist and team leader at Roche for more than a decade. During that time, he was involved in the development and optimization several antibody lead candidates for therapeutic applications in Neuroscience and Oncology.

  • John Huguenard

    John Huguenard

    Professor of Neurology (Neurology Research Faculty), of Neurosurgery (Adult Neurosurgery) and, by courtesy, of Molecular and Cellular Physiology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are interested in the neuronal mechanisms that underlie synchronous oscillatory activity in the thalamus, cortex and the massively interconnected thalamocortical system. Such oscillations are related to cognitive processes, normal sleep activities and certain forms of epilepsy. Our approach is an analysis of the discrete components (cells, synapses, microcircuits) that make up thalamic and cortical circuits, and reconstitution of components into in silico computational networks.

  • Keith Humphreys

    Keith Humphreys

    Esther Ting Memorial Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Humphreys researches individual and societal level interventions for addictive and psychiatric disorders. He focuses particularly on evaluating the outcomes of professionally-administered treatments and peer-operated self-help groups (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous), and, analyzing the impact of public policies touching addiction, mental health, public health, and public safety.

  • Paul S Humphries

    Paul S Humphries

    Alliance Director, Sarafan ChEM-H

    Current Role at StanfordAlliance Director, Stanford Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA)

  • Sohail Z Husain

    Sohail Z Husain

    Chambers-Okamura Endowed Professor of Pediatric Gastroenterology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research delves into three broad areas of the exocrine pancreas: (1) The crucial signaling pathways that initiate and transduce pancreatitis; (2) the factors that turn on pancreatic regeneration and recovery after pancreatic injury; and (3) the mechanisms underlying drug-induced pancreatitis.

  • Ruth Huttenhain

    Ruth Huttenhain

    Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy group deciphers how G protein-coupled receptors decode extracellular cues into dynamic and context-specific cellular signaling networks to elicit diverse physiologic responses. We exploit quantitative proteomics to capture the spatiotemporal organization of signaling networks combined with functional genomics to study their impact on physiology.