Sarafan ChEM-H
Showing 161-170 of 234 Results
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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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Elizabeth Ponder
Executive Director, Sarafan ChEM-H
BioDr. Elizabeth Ponder joined Stanford ChEM-H in 2014 and is currently the Executive Director of Sarafan ChEM-H and the Stanford Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). Dr. Ponder completed her Ph.D. and postdoctoral training at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Bogyo. Her past work has included promoting public-private partnerships in the non-profit sector, managing multidisciplinary research in the higher education sector, and business development consulting in the for-profit biotech sector. Dr. Ponder joined ChEM-H from the University of California, Berkeley where she served as the Executive Director of the Henry Wheeler Center for Emerging & Neglected Diseases (CEND).
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Matthew Porteus
Sutardja Chuk Professor of Definitive and Curative Medicine
BioDr. Porteus was raised in California and was a local graduate of Gunn High School before completing A.B. degree in “History and Science” at Harvard University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and wrote an thesis entitled “Safe or Dangerous Chimeras: The recombinant DNA controversy as a conflict between differing socially constructed interpretations of recombinant DNA technology.” He then returned to the area and completed his combined MD, PhD at Stanford Medical School with his PhD focused on understanding the molecular basis of mammalian forebrain development with his PhD thesis entitled “Isolation and Characterization of TES-1/DLX-2: A Novel Homeobox Gene Expressed During Mammalian Forebrain Development.” After completion of his dual degree program, he was an intern and resident in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and then completed his Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship in the combined Boston Chidlren’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute program. For his fellowship and post-doctoral research he worked with Dr. David Baltimore at MIT and CalTech where he began his studies in developing homologous recombination as a strategy to correct disease causing mutations in stem cells as definitive and curative therapy for children with genetic diseases of the blood, particularly sickle cell disease. Following his training with Dr. Baltimore, he took an independent faculty position at UT Southwestern in the Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry before again returning to Stanford in 2010 as an Associate Professor. During this time his work has been the first to demonstrate that gene correction could be achieved in human cells at frequencies that were high enough to potentially cure patients and is considered one of the pioneers and founders of the field of genome editing—a field that now encompasses thousands of labs and several new companies throughout the world. His research program continues to focus on developing genome editing by homologous recombination as curative therapy for children with genetic diseases but also has interests in the clonal dynamics of heterogeneous populations and the use of genome editing to better understand diseases that affect children including infant leukemias and genetic diseases that affect the muscle. Clinically, Dr. Porteus attends at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital where he takes care of pediatric patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
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Guillem Pratx
Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology (Radiation Physics)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Physical Oncology Lab is interested in making a lasting impact on translational cancer research by building novel physical tools and methods.
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Lei (Stanley) Qi
Associate Professor of Bioengineering
BioDr. Lei (Stanley) Qi is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering, an Institute Scholar at Sarafan ChEM-H, and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. He earned B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Tsinghua University and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley. Before joining the Stanford faculty in 2014, Dr. Qi was a Systems Biology Faculty Fellow at UCSF.
Dr. Qi is a pioneer in CRISPR technology development, particularly in the areas of epigenetic regulation and chromatin DNA imaging. He invented the first nuclease-deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) system for targeted gene regulation in living cells. His lab has since expanded the CRISPR-dCas toolbox, including new tools and variants like hyperCas12a and the compact CasMINI. These new technologies have enabled CRISPRi and CRISPRa for targeted gene repression and activation in various cells and organisms, large-scale genetic perturbation screens, and precision epigenetic editing in primary cells. His lab also developed technologies for dynamic chromatin DNA imaging in live cells (LiveFISH), 3D genome structure manipulation (CRISPR-GO), and multiplexed transcriptome engineering (MEGA).
Dr. Qi has used these new technologies to make key discoveries in epigenetics, such as the synergistic functions of enhancer elements in cancer gene regulation, metabolic pathways in T cell dysfunction, and novel antivirals against RNA viruses. Dr. Qi’s current research explores synthetic biology, epigenetics, immune cell engineering, and innovative targets for gene therapy in immunology and neurobiology.
