Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance


Showing 181-200 of 269 Results

  • Allison Okamura

    Allison Okamura

    Richard W. Weiland Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor, by courtesy, of Computer Science

    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.

  • Marily Oppezzo

    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.

  • Sergiu P. Pasca

    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.

  • Marco Perez

    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.

  • Suzanne Pfeffer

    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.

  • Jennifer Pien MD

    Jennifer Pien MD

    Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    BioJennifer H. Pien is a Clinical Associate Professor and Stanford Medical Humanities & Arts faculty through the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University. She is the Director of The Pegasus Physician Writers, Founder of The Pegasus Review, and is on the faculty editorial team 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. 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

    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.

  • Lisa Post

    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.

  • Manu Prakash

    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.

  • Carla Pugh, MD, PhD

    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.

  • Stephen Quake

    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.

  • Nilam Ram

    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.

  • Allan L. Reiss

    Allan L. Reiss

    Howard C. Robbins Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Radiology
    On Partial Leave from 01/01/2024 To 06/30/2024

    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.

  • Laura Roberts, MD, MA

    Laura Roberts, MD, MA

    Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Psychology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Roberts has performed numerous empirical studies of contemporary ethics issues in medicine and health policy and has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the National Alliance of Schizophrenia and Depression, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, and other private and public foundations.

  • Thomas Robinson

    Thomas Robinson

    The Irving Schulman, M.D. Professor of Child Health, Professor of Medicine (Stanford Prevention Research Center) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Robinson originated the solution-oriented research paradigm and directs the Stanford Solutions Science Lab. He is known for his pioneering obesity prevention and treatment research, including the concept of stealth interventions. His research applies social cognitive models of behavior change to behavioral, social, environmental and policy interventions for children and families in real world settings, making the results relevant for informing clinical and public health practice and policy.

  • William H. Robinson, MD PhD

    William H. Robinson, MD PhD

    James W. Raitt, M.D. Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab investigates the molecular mechanisms of and develops therapies to treat autoimmune and rheumatic diseases, with a focus on rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, and osteoarthritis.

    The overriding objectives of our laboratory are:
    1. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying autoimmune and rheumatic diseases.
    2. To investigate the role of innate immune inflammation in osteoarthritis.
    3. To develop novel diagnostics and therapeutics

  • Christian Rose, MD

    Christian Rose, MD

    Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine (Adult Clinical/Academic)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsUncertainty permeates the practice of emergency medicine. I want to answer the question: what do you do when you don't know what to do?