Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance


Showing 1-20 of 26 Results

  • Sean Mackey, M.D., Ph.D.

    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.

  • Holden Maecker

    Holden Maecker

    Professor (Research) of Microbiology and Immunology
    On Partial Leave from 09/15/2024 To 08/31/2025

    Current 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.

  • Danielle Mai

    Danielle Mai

    Assistant Professor of Chemical 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).

  • Jennifer Maier

    Jennifer Maier

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Mechanical Engineering

    BioMy research interests include a broad variety of topics, ranging from medical image analysis and signal processing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, which I mainly focused on during my Ph.D. research. As a member of the Digital Athlete project of the Wu Tsai Performance Allience, I am now pursuing research to investigate how we can use wearable sensors, machine learning and biomechanical simulations to improve athlete performance, prevent injuries and support rehabilitation after injury.

    I completed my Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in medical engineering from Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuernberg (FAU). In 2015, I worked on my master’s thesis under the supervision of Prof. Kamiar Aminian during a research stay in the Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement (LMAM), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), supported by a DAAD Scholarship. Afterwards, I pursued my Ph.D. at FAU in the Pattern Recognition Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Andreas Maier and in the Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab under the supervision of Prof. Bjoern Eskofier. I worked on projects in collaboration with Stanford University and the Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) and conducted several short-term research stays at the partner universities. After finishing my Ph.D. in 2021, I joined Stanford University as a postdoctoral scholar advised by Prof. Ellen Kuhl.

  • Joshua Makower

    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.

  • Maryam S. Makowski, PhD

    Maryam S. Makowski, PhD

    Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    BioMaryam Sarah Makowski, PhD is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Associate Director of Scholarship and Health Promotion for Stanford Medicine’s WellMD & WellPhD. As a medical nutrition scientist and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, Dr. Makowski provides nutrition consultations and well-being coaching to Stanford School of Medicine faculty and patients at the Lifestyle Psychiatry Clinic. She is also a member of the Well-Being Advisory Committee within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. In recognition of her contributions, Dr. Makowski received 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.

    Dr. Makowski's research on physician well-being includes examining the effects of lifestyle practices and self-compassion on physician well-being. Her nutrition research investigates the impact of meal composition and timing on the mood and mental sharpness of physicians. As an engaging and inspiring public speaker, teacher, and educator, she has given over 100 lectures, grand rounds, seminars, and webinars to thousands of physicians and physician trainees worldwide.

    Maryam earned her master's and doctoral degrees in clinical nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, and medical science from the University of Toronto. Prior to 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 on 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

    Robert Malenka

    Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
    On Leave from 11/01/2023 To 10/31/2025

    Current 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.

  • William J. Maloney, MD

    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.

  • Alison Marsden

    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.

  • Maya Mathur

    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

  • Michaëlle Ntala Mayalu

    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

    Jay McClelland

    Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Professor of Psychology and, by courtesy, of Linguistics and of Computer Science
    On Partial Leave from 01/01/2025 To 03/31/2025

    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.

  • Tracey McLaughlin

    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

  • Jennifer A McNab

    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.

  • Vinod Menon

    Vinod Menon

    Rachael L. and Walter F. Nichols, MD, Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Education and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
    On Partial Leave from 01/01/2025 To 01/31/2025

    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

    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.

  • Carlos Milla

    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.