Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance
Showing 151-200 of 279 Results
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Angela K. Lumba-Brown
Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Clinical Associate Professor (By courtesy), Neurosurgery
Clinical Associate Professor, PediatricsCurrent Research and Scholarly InterestsCurrent research includes evidence-based guidelines for the management and treatment of traumatic brain injury, research establishing an evidence and targeting treatments for the subtypes of concussion, research identifying the best outcomes in pre-hospital care of patients with traumatic brain injury, research on brain performance via sensorimotor and sensory-cognitive synchronization, and research on dynamic visual synchronization as a biomarker for attentional impairments.
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Sean Mackey, M.D., Ph.D.
Redlich Professor, Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine (Adult Pain) and, by courtesy, of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMultiple NIH funded projects to characterize CNS mechanisms of human pain. Comparative effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy and chronic pain self-management within the context of opioid reduction (PCORI funded). Single session pain catastrophizing treatment: comparative efficacy & mechanisms (NIH R01). Development and implementation of an open-source learning healthcare system, CHOIR (http://choir/stanford.edu), to optimize pain care and innovative research in real-world patients.
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Holden Maecker
Professor (Research) of Microbiology and Immunology
On Partial Leave from 09/15/2024 To 08/31/2025Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI'm interested in immune monitoring of T cell responses to chronic pathogens and cancer, and the correlation of T cell response signatures with disease protection.
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Danielle Mai
Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Materials Science and Engineering
BioDanielle J. Mai joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford in January 2020. She earned her B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the guidance of Prof. Charles M. Schroeder. Dr. Mai was an Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof. Bradley D. Olsen's group at MIT, where she engineered materials with selective biomolecular transport properties, elucidated mechanisms of toughness and extensibility in entangled associative hydrogels, and developed high-throughput methods for the discovery of polypeptide materials. The Mai Lab engineers biopolymers, which are the building blocks of life. Specifically, the group integrates precise biopolymer engineering with multi-scale experimental characterization to advance biomaterials development and to enhance fundamental understanding of soft matter physics. Dr. Mai's work has been recognized through the AIChE 35 Under 35 Award (2020), APS DPOLY/UKPPG Lecture Exchange (2021), Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award (2022), ACS PMSE Arthur K. Doolittle Award (2023), and MIT Technology Review List of 35 Innovators Under 35 (2023).
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Joshua Makower
Yock Family Professor and Professor of Bioengineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Josh Makower is the Boston Scientific Applied Bioengineering Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering at the Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering and the Director of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, the program he co-founded with Dr. Paul Yock twenty years ago. Josh helped create the fundamental structure of the Center’s core curriculum and is the chief architect of what is now called “The Biodesign Process.” Over the past 20 years since Josh and Paul founded Biodesign, this curriculum and the associated textbook has been used at Stanford and across the world to train hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and industry leaders on the Biodesign process towards the advancement of medical innovation for the improvement of patient care. Josh has practiced these same techniques directly as the Founder & Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator, creating 9 companies since 1995. Transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include NeoTract, acquired by Teleflex, Acclarent, acquired by J&J, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard & TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic. Other ExploraMed/NEA ventures include Moximed, NC8 and Willow. Josh is also a Special Partner at NEA where he supports the healthcare team and medtech/healthtech investing practice. Josh serves on the boards of Allay Therapeutics, Revelle Aesthetics, Setpoint Medical, DOTS Technologies, Eargo, ExploraMed, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Moximed, Willow and Coravin. Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Josh is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and the College of Fellows of The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and was awarded the Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2018.
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Maryam S. Makowski, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
BioMaryam Sarah Makowski, PhD, is a Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She also serves as the Associate Director of Scholarship and Health Promotion for the Stanford Medicine WellMD & WellPhD program. Additionally, she is a member of the Well-being Advisory Committee and represents Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences as an alternate faculty senate member at Stanford Medicine.
As a nutrition scientist, physician well-being expert, and National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach, Dr. Makowski provides well-being coaching to Stanford Medicine faculty, residents, and fellows as part of the WellConnect Program, and patients of the Lifestyle Psychiatry Clinic. She was honored with the 2024 Annual Chairman's Award for Clinical Innovation and Service in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Using evidence-based strategies, Dr. Makowski empowers her clients to optimize their well-being, energy, focus, and mental sharpness for peak performance. Dr. Makowski's research on physician well-being includes studying the effects of individual factors such as lifestyle practices, self-compassion, and self-valuation on physician well-being. Her nutrition research focuses on examining the impact of micro- and macro-nutrients, meal composition, and timing on cognitive function, mood, mental sharpness, and eating behaviors of professionals with high cognitive and physical demands, particularly physicians.
Maryam earned her master's and doctoral degrees in clinical nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, and medical science from the University of Toronto. Before joining Stanford, she worked as a scientific associate at Toronto General Hospital-University Health Network and served as an advisor to Air Canada rouge pilots and cabin crew for fatigue management. Throughout her career, Dr. Makowski has authored highly cited scientific papers related to nutrition and well-being, making significant contributions to the field. -
Robert Malenka
Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
On Leave from 11/01/2023 To 10/31/2025Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLong-lasting changes in synaptic strength are important for the modification of neural circuits by experience. A major goal of my laboratory is to elucidate the molecular events that trigger various forms of synaptic plasticity and the modifications in synaptic proteins that are responsible for the changes in synaptic efficacy.
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William J. Maloney, MD
Boswell Chair of Orthopaedics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Maloney is nationally and internationally recognized for his contributions to the improved understanding of the causes of failure of surgical joint replacement. For example; he established a critical link between polyethylene wear debris and bony erosion, with resulting significant changes in the materials and design strategies of joint replacement surgery. More recently, he has shown that wear debris particles are coated in vivo with human proteins, such as albumin; this observation has notably improved the validity of in vitro investigation in this area. His research in the area of joint replacement has twice won awards from the Hip Society. Dr. Maloney is currently the President of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and has served on numerous AAOS committees, including the Council on Education. Previously, he was chair of the American Joint Replacement Registry Board of Directors (AJRR), and on the board of directors for the Knee Society, the Hip Society, the Western Orthopaedic Association, and the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS). Dr. Maloney is a past president of the Hip Society. He has been a Visiting Professor to numerous universities and institutions throughout the United States and Asia.
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Alison Marsden
Douglass M. and Nola Leishman Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases, Professor of Pediatrics (Cardiology) and of Bioengineering and, by courtesy, of Mechanical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Cardiovascular Biomechanics Computation Lab at Stanford develops novel computational methods for the study of cardiovascular disease progression, surgical methods, and medical devices. We have a particular interest in pediatric cardiology, and use virtual surgery to design novel surgical concepts for children born with heart defects.
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Maya Mathur
Associate Professor (Research) of Pediatrics, of Medicine (Biomedical Informatics) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSynthesizing evidence across studies while accounting for biases
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Michaëlle Ntala Mayalu
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering
BioDr. Michaëlle N. Mayalu is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. She received her Ph.D., M.S., and B.S., degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology in the Computing and Mathematical Sciences Department. She was a 2017 California Alliance Postdoctoral Fellowship Program recipient and a 2019 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Program award recipient. She is also a 2023 Hypothesis Fund Grantee.
Dr. Michaëlle N. Mayalu's area of expertise is in mathematical modeling and control theory of synthetic biological and biomedical systems. She is interested in the development of control theoretic tools for understanding, controlling, and predicting biological function at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels to optimize therapeutic intervention.
She is the director of the Mayalu Lab whose research objective is to investigate how to optimize biomedical therapeutic designs using theoretical and computational approaches coupled with experiments. Initial project concepts include: i) theoretical and experimental design of bacterial "microrobots" for preemptive and targeted therapeutic intervention, ii) system-level multi-scale modeling of gut associated skin disorders for virtual evaluation and optimization of therapy, iii) theoretical and experimental design of "microrobotic" swarms of engineered bacteria with sophisticated centralized and decentralized control schemes to explore possible mechanisms of pattern formation. The experimental projects in the Mayalu Lab utilize established techniques borrowed from the field of synthetic biology to develop synthetic genetic circuits in E. coli to make bacterial "microrobots". Ultimately the Mayalu Lab aims to develop accurate and efficient modeling frameworks that incorporate computation, dynamical systems, and control theory that will become more widespread and impactful in the design of electro-mechanical and biological therapeutic machines. -
Jay McClelland
Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Professor of Psychology and, by courtesy, of Linguistics and of Computer Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research addresses topics in perception and decision making; learning and memory; language and reading; semantic cognition; and cognitive development. I view cognition as emerging from distributed processing activity of neural populations, with learning occurring through the adaptation of connections among neurons. A new focus of research in the laboratory is mathematical cognition and reasoning in humans and contemporary AI systems based on neural networks.
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Tracey McLaughlin
Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. McLaughlin conducts clinical research related to obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Current studies include: 1) the impact of macronutrient composition on metabolism, DM2 and CVD; 2) comparison of different weight loss diets on metabolism and CVD risk reduction ; 3) role of adipocytes and adipose tissue immune cells in modulating insulin resistance; 4) use of continuous glucose monitoring and multi-omics to define metabolic phenotype and precision diets
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Jennifer A McNab
Associate Professor (Research) of Radiology (Radiological Sciences Laboratory)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research is focused on developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods that probe brain tissue microstructure. This requires new MRI contrast mechanisms, strategic encoding and reconstruction schemes, physiological monitoring, brain tissue modeling and validation. Applications of these methods include neuronavigation, neurosurgical planning and the development of improved biomarkers for brain development, degeneration, disease and injury.
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Vinod Menon
Rachael L. and Walter F. Nichols, MD, Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Education and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEXPERIMENTAL, CLINICAL AND THEORETICAL SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE
Cognitive neuroscience; Systems neuroscience; Cognitive development; Psychiatric neuroscience; Functional brain imaging; Dynamical basis of brain function; Nonlinear dynamics of neural systems. -
Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD
Craig Reynolds Professor of Sleep Medicine and Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe research focus of the laboratory is the study of sleep and sleep disorders such as narcolepsy and Kleine Levin syndrome. We also study the neurobiological and genetic basis of the EEG and develop new tools to study sleep using nocturnal polysomnography. Approaches mostly involve human genetic studies (GWAS, sequencing), EEG signal analysis (deep learning), and immunology (narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease of the brain). We also work on autoimmune encephalitis.
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Carlos Milla
Professor of Pediatrics (Pulmonary Medicine) and, by courtesy, of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAt Stanford University I developed and currently direct the CF Translational Research Center. The overarching goal of the center is to provide the groundwork to streamline, accelerate, and promote the translation of basic discoveries into effective therapies and interventions to benefit patients affected by cystic fibrosis. My laboratory group currently has three main lines of investigation: respiratory cell biology in CF; remote biochemical monitoring; and lung physiology in young children.
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Stephen B. Montgomery
Stanford Medicine Professor of Pathology, Professor of Genetics and of Biomedical Data Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe focus on understanding the effects of genome variation on cellular phenotypes and cellular modeling of disease through genomic approaches such as next generation RNA sequencing in combination with developing and utilizing state-of-the-art bioinformatics and statistical genetics approaches. See our website at http://montgomerylab.stanford.edu/
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Kelli Moran-Miller, PhD
Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
BioDr. Kelli Moran-Miller joined Stanford in Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences in 2015. She is a licensed psychologist specializing in athlete mental health and sport and performance psychology. She also is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant with the Association of Applied Sport Psychology and a member of the US Olympic Committee registry. In her current role with Stanford Athletics (DAPER), she provides clinical and performance psychology services for varsity student-athletes, coaches, staff, and varsity sport teams. Prior to Stanford, she was the Director of Counseling and Sport Psychology - Athletics at the University of Iowa.
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Paula M. L. Moya
Danily C. and Laura Louise Bell Professor of the Humanities and Professor, by courtesy, of African and African American Studies and of Iberian and Latin American Cultures
BioMoya is the Faculty Director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE).
She is the author of The Social Imperative: Race, Close Reading, and Contemporary Literary Criticism (Stanford UP 2016) and Learning From Experience: Minority Identities, Multicultural Struggles (UC Press 2002). She has co-edited three collections of original essays including Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century (W.W. Norton, Inc. 2010), Identity Politics Reconsidered (Palgrave 2006) and Reclaiming Identity: Realist Theory and the Predicament of Postmodernism (UC Press 2000).
Her teaching and research focus on twentieth-century and early twenty-first century literary studies, feminist theory, critical theory, narrative theory, speculative fiction, interdisciplinary approaches to race and ethnicity, and Chicano/a and U.S. Latina/o studies.
At Stanford, Moya has served as the Director of the Research Institute of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), Director of the Program of Modern Thought and Literature (MTL), Vice Chair of the Department of English, and the Director of the Undergraduate Program of CCSRE. She has been the faculty coordinator of several faculty-graduate student research networks sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center, the Research Institute for the Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and Modern Thought and Literature. They include The Interdisciplinary Working Group in Critical Theory (2015-2016, 2012-2014), Feminist Theory (2007-08, 2002-03), Americanity / Coloniality / Modernity (2006-07), and How Do Identities Matter? (2003-06).
Moya was a co-PI of the Stanford Catalyst Motivating Mobility project, and team leader of the Perfecto Project, a fitness tracking app that combines narrative theory, social psychology, and UI/UX research to leverage culturally-specific narratives and artwork to encourage positive behavior change and healthier living in middle-aged and elderly Latinx populations. She was also a founding organizer and coordinating team member of The Future of Minority Studies research project (FMS), an inter-institutional, interdisciplinary, and multigenerational research project facilitating focused and productive discussions about the democratizing role of minority identity and participation in a multicultural society.
Moya has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a Clayman Institute Fellow, a CCSRE Faculty Research Fellow, and a Ford Foundation posdoctoral fellow. She has also been the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and an Outstanding Chicana/o Faculty Member award. -
Jonathan N. Myers
Clinical Professor (Affiliated), Medicine - Med/Cardiovascular Medicine
BioDr. Myers is a Health Research Scientist at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System; a Clinical Professor at Stanford University (Affiliated), and a Senior Research Career Scientist Award recipient through the VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Program. His research has focused on primary and secondary prevention, and the clinical applications of exercise testing and rehabilitation in patients with cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions. He has a lengthy history of studying the epidemiology of cardiopulmonary exercise test responses, physical activity patterns, and other lifestyle factors and their relation to health outcomes. He manages the Veterans Exercise Testing Study (VETS), an ongoing, prospective evaluation of Veteran subjects referred for exercise testing for clinical reasons, designed to address exercise test, clinical, and lifestyle factors and their association with health outcomes.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, his master's degree from San Diego State University, and his doctorate from the University of Southern California. He has been a board member for many organizations including the American Heart Association (AHA), the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR), and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and serves on the editorial board for 9 journals. He is a recipient of the Michael Pollock Established Investigator Award through the AACVPR, a recipient of the Steven N Blair Award for excellence in physical activity research from the AHA Council on Epidemiology and Prevention and is the 2022 recipient of the American College of Sports Medicine Citation Award. He is a fellow of the AACVPR, ACSM, American College of Cardiology, and the AHA, and has authored and co-authored guidelines on exercise testing and rehabilitation for each of these organizations, including the 2021 editions of the ACSM and AACVPR guidelines. -
Hae Young Noh
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioHae Young Noh is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research introduced the new concept of “structures as sensors” to enable physical structures (e.g., buildings and vehicle frames) to be user- and environment-aware. In particular, these structures indirectly sense humans and surrounding environments through their structural responses (i.e., vibrations) by inferring the desired information (e.g., human behaviors, environmental conditions, heating and cooling system performance), instead of directly measuring the sensing targets with additional dedicated sensors (e.g., cameras, motion sensors). This concept brought a paradigm shift in how we view these structures and how the structures interact with us.
Traditionally, structures that we inhabit (such as buildings or vehicles) are considered as passive and unchanging objects that we need to monitor and control, utilizing a dense set of sensors to collect information. This has often been complicated by “noise” caused by the occupants and environments. For example, building vibrations induced by indoor and outdoor environmental and operational conditions (e.g., people walking around, traffic outside, heating system running, etc.), have been often seen as noise that needs to be removed in traditional building science and structural engineering; however, they are a rich source of information about structure, users, environment, and resources. Similarly, in vehicle engineering, researchers and engineers have been investigating control and dynamics to reduce vehicle vibration for safety and comfort. However, vibrations measured inside vehicles contain information about transportation infrastructure, vehicle itself, and driver.
Noh's work utilizes this “noise” to empower the structures with the ability to perceive and understand the information about users and surroundings using their own responses, and actively adopt and/or interact to enhance their sustainability and the occupants’ quality of life. Since she utilizes the structure itself as a sensing medium, information collection involves a simpler set of hardware that can be easily maintained throughout the structural lifetime. However, the analysis of data to separate the desired information becomes more challenging. This challenge is addressed through high-rate dynamic sensing and multi-source inferencing. Ultimately, her work aims to allow structural systems to become general sensing platforms that are easier and more practical to deploy and maintain in a long-term.
At Stanford University, Noh received her PhD and MS degrees in the CEE department and her second MS degree in Electrical Engineering. Noh earned her BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. -
Douglas Noordsy
Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
BioDouglas L. Noordsy, MD, is Clinical Professor, Director of Lifestyle Psychiatry and co-founder of the Sports Psychology & Psychiatry clinic in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Noordsy was previously Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. His research interests include effects of physical exercise on neurotrophic factors, brain volume and function and mental health and wellbeing. He is particularly interested in the role of physical exercise for prevention of progression of early psychosis and interactions between social and physical aspects of team sports. Dr. Noordsy is a member of the American College of Psychiatry, American College of Lifestyle Medicine and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a member of the editorial boards for Community Mental Health Journal and Mental Health & Physical Activity. Dr. Noordsy was recognized with the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2001, and the Excellence in Leadership Award from the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 2018. He launched the Stanford Lifestyle & Sports Psychiatry Special Initiative of the Department of Psychiatry in 2024 and is seeking philanthropic partners.
https://med.stanford.edu/psychiatry/special-initiatives/lifestyle.html
https://med.stanford.edu/psychiatry/patient_care/lifestyle.html -
Anthony Norcia
Professor (Research) of Psychology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsVision, development, functional imaging, systems analysis
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Paul Nuyujukian
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur group explores neuroengineering and its application to both basic and clinical neuroscience. Our goal is to develop brain-machine interfaces as a platform technology for a variety of brain-related medical conditions including stroke and epilepsy.
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Johanna O'Day
Scientific Program Manager - Education and Communications
BioI believe in using human-centered design and bioengineering to improve health. I have developed open-source tools that use wearables to better understand and improve mobility. I am passionate about building empathetic communities equipped with the skills and knowledge to make our world healthier, smarter, and more collaborative.
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Jelena Obradović
Professor of Education
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAdaptation, resilience, and developmental psychopathology of disadvantaged children populations; Stress reactivity and biological sensitivity to contextual influences; Executive function and self-regulatory abilities; Effects of risk, adversity, and social status on children’s development.
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Michelle Odden
Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMultilevel - from cells to society - epidemiologic study of healthy aging
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Allison Okamura
Richard W. Weiland Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on developing the principles and tools needed to realize advanced robotic and human-machine systems capable of physical interaction. Application areas include surgery, simulation and training, rehabilitation, prosthetics, neuromechanics, exploration of hazardous and remote environments (e.g. space), design, and education.
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Marily Oppezzo
Instructor, Medicine - Stanford Prevention Research Center
BioMarily Oppezzo is a behavioral and learning scientist. She completed her doctorate in Educational Psychology at Stanford in 2013. She also is a registered dietitian and has her master's of nutritional science. She completed her dietetic internship at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, and currently consults as a sports dietitian for Stanford's Runsafe program. Her research interests leverage her interdisciplinary training, with a focus on how to get people to change to improve their health and well-being. Specifically, these areas include: using social media to motivate physical activity changes in those with or at risk for heart disease; culturally tailoring nutrition and physical activity recommendations and education materials for an Alaskan native population; how walking can be used to improve people's cognitive and creative thinking; and applying learning theories to medical education topics.
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Sergiu P. Pasca
Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Bonnie Uytengsu and Family Director of the Stanford Brain Organogenesis Program
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsA critical challenge in understanding the intricate programs underlying development, assembly and dysfunction of the human brain is the lack of direct access to intact, functioning human brain tissue for detailed investigation by imaging, recording, and stimulation.
To address this, we are developing bottom-up approaches to generate and assemble, from multi-cellular components, human neural circuits in vitro and in vivo.
We introduced the use of instructive signals for deriving from human pluripotent stem cells self-organizing 3D cellular structures named brain region-specific spheroids/organoids. We demonstrated that these cultures, such as the ones resembling the cerebral cortex, can be reliably derived across many lines and experiments, contain synaptically connected neurons and non-reactive astrocytes, and can be used to gain mechanistic insights into genetic and environmental brain disorders. Moreover, when maintained as long-term cultures, they recapitulate an intrinsic program of maturation that progresses towards postnatal stages.
We also pioneered a modular system to integrate 3D brain region-specific organoids and study human neuronal migration and neural circuit formation in functional preparations that we named assembloids. We have actively applied these models in combination with studies in long-term ex vivo brain preparations to acquire a deeper understanding of human physiology, evolution and disease mechanisms.
We have carved a unique research program that combines rigorous in vivo and in vitro neuroscience, stem cell and molecular biology approaches to construct and deconstruct previously inaccessible stages of human brain development and function in health and disease.
We believe science is a community effort, and accordingly, we have been advancing the field by broadly and openly sharing our technologies with numerous laboratories around the world and organizing the primary research conference and the training courses in the area of cellular models of the human brain. -
Michele Lanpher Patel
Instructor, Medicine - Stanford Prevention Research Center
BioMichele L. Patel, PhD is an Instructor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on optimizing digital health interventions for treating & preventing obesity. She is particularly interested in improving engagement in these interventions and examining the impact of psychosocial factors on treatment success.
Dr. Patel received a K23 career development award from NIH (2022-2027). This work investigates the most potent combination of self-monitoring strategies in a behavioral weight loss intervention for adults with overweight or obesity. Dr. Patel is interested in using digital tools such as commercial apps, wearables, text-messaging, and telehealth to improve access to and engagement in treatment.
Dr. Patel received her BA in psychology from Duke University in 2010 and her PhD in clinical psychology from Duke in 2018. She completed her clinical internship at the VA Palo Alto, specializing in behavioral medicine, and her postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.
Primary Research Interests:
-- Conducting clinical trials to evaluate digital health interventions for obesity
-- Improving engagement in self-monitoring and other behavioral intervention strategies
-- Examining the impact of psychosocial factors (e.g., health literacy, stress) on treatment success
-- Applying the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) framework to efficiently construct behavioral interventions
Methods:
-- RCTs, including factorial designs
-- systematic reviews
-- signal detection analysis
-- mixed methods & qualitative methods -
Marco Perez
Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine)
BioDr. Marco Perez's research goal is to better understand the fundamental causes of cardiovascular disease through the study of genetics and epidemiology. His group studies the genetic variations and environmental exposures that are associated with conditions such as atrial fibrillation and heart failure. He has led the studies of atrial fibrillation in Women's Health Initiative, one of the largest nation-wide population-based cohorts. He is currently conducting a large study monitoring for silent or asymptomatic atrial fibrillation in women from the WHI randomized to exercise intervention, and was co-PI of the Apple Heart Study, a clinical trial that validated the ability of a smartwatch to detect atrial fibrillation. He is now PI of the Clinical Coordinating Center at Stanford for the REACT-AF which is a clinical trial to evaluate efficacy and safety of a "pill-in-the pocket" approach to anticoagulation for AF using a smartwatch. He is interested in understanding the paradox that atrial fibrillation is less common in African Americans and Hispanics, despite a greater burden of risk factors such as hypertension. As director of the Stanford Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic, he evaluates families with rare inherited arrhythmias associated with sudden death such as Long QT and Brugada Syndromes and explores their links with novel genes. He also studies the genetic causes of very early onset atrial fibrillation. He also studies how best to use the electrocardiogram and imaging modalities using Machine Learning techniques to identify patients at risk for cardiovascular disease. Dr. Perez receives funding from the NIH/NHLBI, Apple Inc., Janssen and the Colson Foundation.
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Suzanne Pfeffer
Emma Pfeiffer Merner Professor of Medical Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe major focus of our research is to understand the molecular basis of inherited Parkinson's Disease (PD). We focus on the LRRK2 kinase that is inappropriately activated in PD and how it phosphorylates Rab GTPases, blocking the formation of primary cilia in specific regions of the brain. The absence of primary cilia renders cells unable to carry out Hedgehog signaling that is critical for neuroprotective pathways that sustain dopamine neurons.
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Jennifer Pien MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
BioJennifer H. Pien is a Clinical Associate Professor through the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University. She is the Director of The Pegasus Physician Writers, Founder of The Pegasus Review, and is a founding faculty editor for the Oxford Review of Books x Stanford collaboration. She also serves on the Advisory Board for The Bellevue Literary Press and the Stanford School of Medicine Medical Humanities Fellowship. Jennifer is represented by Amy Collins of Talcott Notch. She is the author of Healing the Healers, Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming 2025 and is the Co-Founder of Hesperides Literary Agency.
In addition to her work in Medical Humanities, her interests include advocacy for adults with developmental disabilities where she cofounded Puente Clinic through the San Mateo County Medical System, an innovative dev. disabilities subspecialty clinic. She serves on the Regional Advisory Committee to the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities. Currently, her clinical focus is on physician well-being through the WellConnect team. -
Russell Poldrack
Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab uses the tools of cognitive neuroscience to understand how decision making, executive control, and learning and memory are implemented in the human brain. We also develop neuroinformatics tools and resources to help researchers make better sense of data.
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Ada Poon
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research focuses on providing theoretical foundations and engineering platforms for realizing electronics that seamlessly integrate with the body. Such systems will allow precise recording or modulation of physiological activity, for advancing basic scientific discovery and for restoring or augmenting biological functions for clinical applications.
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Lisa Post
Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
BioDr. Lisa Post, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression and adjustment disorders in adults. She has been a practicing clinician at Stanford Hospital and Clinics since 1993. Since 2000, she has been Director of a clinical program for Stanford Varsity Athletes and for nine years has been the Team Clinician for the San Francisco 49ers. Her primary interest are in the treatment of high performing individuals and in stress management.
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Manu Prakash
Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Oceans and of Biology
BioWe use interdisciplinary approaches including theory and experiments to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. Examples include cognition in single cell protists and morphological computing in animals with no neurons and origins of complex behavior in multi-cellular systems. Broadly, we invent new tools for studying non-model organisms with significant focus on life in the ocean - addressing fundamental questions such as how do cells sense pressure or gravity? Finally, we are dedicated towards inventing and distributing “frugal science” tools to democratize access to science (previous inventions used worldwide: Foldscope, Abuzz), diagnostics of deadly diseases like malaria and convening global citizen science communities to tackle planetary scale environmental challenges such as mosquito surveillance or plankton surveillance by citizen sailors mapping the ocean in the age of Anthropocene.
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Carla Pugh, MD, PhD
Thomas Krummel Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Technology Enabled Clinical Improvement (T.E.C.I.) Center is a multidisciplinary team of researchers dedicated to the design and implementation of advanced engineering technologies that facilitate data acquisition relating to clinical performance.
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Stephen Quake
Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Bioengineering, of Applied Physics and, by courtesy, of Physics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSingle molecule biophysics, precision force measurement, micro and nano fabrication with soft materials, integrated microfluidics and large scale biological automation.
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Nilam Ram
Professor of Communication and of Psychology
BioNilam Ram studies the dynamic interplay of psychological and media processes and how they change from moment-to-moment and across the life span.
Nilam’s research grows out of a history of studying change. After completing his undergraduate study of economics, he worked as a currency trader, frantically tracking and trying to predict the movement of world markets as they jerked up, down and sideways. Later, he moved on to the study of human movement, kinesiology, and eventually psychological processes - with a specialization in longitudinal research methodology. Generally, Nilam studies how short-term changes (e.g., processes such as learning, information processing, emotion regulation, etc.) develop across the life span, and how longitudinal study designs contribute to generation of new knowledge. Current projects include examinations of age-related change in children’s self- and emotion-regulation; patterns in minute-to-minute and day-to-day progression of adolescents’ and adults’ emotions; and change in contextual influences on well-being during old age. He is developing a variety of study paradigms that use recent developments in data science and the intensive data streams arriving from social media, mobile sensors, and smartphones to study change at multiple time scales. -
Babak Razavi, MD, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences
BioDr. Razavi's clinical interests are in medically refractory epilepsies and using high density EEG (electroencephalogram) for better localization of seizure foci. His research areas include using advanced digital signal processing and engineering techniques for analyzing EEG and using seizures as a model for understanding consciousness.
Dr. Razavi is the Founder and Director of DEL - Distributed EEG Lab. DEL's vision is to make EEG easy as 1, 2, 3. We turn complexity into simplicity. We are distributed in time and space. DEL was founded in the spirit of cloud computing, networking, and the notion that research in collaboration is more exciting and fruitful than in isolation. Everyone contributes - no matter how small; everyone wins - no matter how big. It was inspired by the mentorship of Dr. Kimford Meador and Dr. Robert Fisher. All you need is access to a computer and the internet.
DEL is the ideal collaborative environment for students (undergraduate and graduate) and faculty who would like to: (1) apply ready-to-use advanced analytical techniques to test specific hypotheses in cognition, neuroscience and epilepsy, and (2) develop and test new algorithms for analyzing EEG and other biological signals. -
Allan L. Reiss
Howard C. Robbins Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Radiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy laboratory, the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research (CIBSR), focuses on multi-level scientific study of individuals with typical and atypical brain structure and function. Data are obtained from genetic analyses, structural and functional neuroimaging studies, assessment of endocrinological status, neurobehavioral assessment, and analysis of pertinent environmental factors. Our overarching focus is to model how brain disorders arise and to develop disease-specific treatments.
