Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute


Showing 1-20 of 36 Results

  • Stephen A. Baccus

    Stephen A. Baccus

    Professor of Neurobiology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study how the neural circuitry of the vertebrate retina encodes visual information and performs computations. To control and measure the retinal circuit, we present visual images while performing simultaneous two-photon imaging and multielectrode recording. We perturb the circuit as it operates using simultaneous intracellular current injection and multielectrode recording, and use the resulting large data sets to construct models of retinal computation.

  • Jeremy Bailenson

    Jeremy Bailenson

    Thomas More Storke Professor, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Education
    On Leave from 10/01/2023 To 06/30/2024

    BioJeremy Bailenson is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Thomas More Storke Professor in the Department of Communication, Professor (by courtesy) of Education, Professor (by courtesy) Program in Symbolic Systems, and a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. He has served as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication for over a decade. He earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1994 and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Northwestern University in 1999. He spent four years at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and then an Assistant Research Professor.

    Bailenson studies the psychology of Virtual and Augmented Reality, in particular how virtual experiences lead to changes in perceptions of self and others. His lab builds and studies systems that allow people to meet in virtual space, and explores the changes in the nature of social interaction. His most recent research focuses on how virtual experiences can transform education, environmental conservation, empathy, and health. He is the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford. In 2020, IEEE recognized his work with “The Virtual/Augmented Reality Technical Achievement Award”.

    He has published more than 200 academic papers, spanning the fields of communication, computer science, education, environmental science, law, linguistics, marketing, medicine, political science, and psychology. His work has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation for over 25 years.

    His first book Infinite Reality, co-authored with Jim Blascovich, emerged as an Amazon Best-seller eight years after its initial publication, and was quoted by the U.S. Supreme Court. His new book, Experience on Demand, was reviewed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Nature, and The Times of London, and was an Amazon Best-seller.

    He has written opinion pieces for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, CNN, PBS NewsHour, Wired, National Geographic, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, TechCrunch, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and has produced or directed six Virtual Reality documentary experiences which were official selections at the Tribeca Film Festival. His lab has exhibited VR in hundreds of venues ranging from The Smithsonian to The Superbowl.

  • Zhenan Bao

    Zhenan Bao

    K. K. Lee Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Materials Science and Engineering and of Chemistry
    On Partial Leave from 04/01/2024 To 06/30/2024

    BioZhenan Bao joined Stanford University in 2004. She is currently a K.K. Lee Professor in Chemical Engineering, and with courtesy appointments in Chemistry and Material Science and Engineering. She was the Department Chair of Chemical Engineering from 2018-2022. She founded the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative (eWEAR) and is the current faculty director. She is also an affiliated faculty member of Precourt Institute, Woods Institute, ChEM-H and Bio-X. Professor Bao received her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from The University of Chicago in 1995 and joined the Materials Research Department of Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies. She became a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 2001. Professor Bao currently has more than 700 refereed publications and more than 80 US patents with a Google Scholar H-index 211.

    Bao is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. Bao was elected a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Science in 2021. She is a Fellow of AAAS, ACS, MRS, SPIE, ACS POLY and ACS PMSE.

    Bao is a member of the Board of Directors for the Camille and Dreyfus Foundation from 2022. She served as a member of Executive Board of Directors for the Materials Research Society and Executive Committee Member for the Polymer Materials Science and Engineering division of the American Chemical Society. She was an Associate Editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemical Science, Polymer Reviews and Synthetic Metals. She serves on the international advisory board for Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials, ACS Nano, Accounts of Chemical Reviews, Advanced Functional Materials, Chemistry of Materials, Chemical Communications, Journal of American Chemical Society, Nature Asian Materials, Materials Horizon and Materials Today. She is one of the Founders and currently sits on the Board of Directors of C3 Nano Co. and PyrAmes, both are silicon valley venture funded companies.

    Bao was a recipient of the VinFuture Prize Female Innovator 2022, ACS Award of Chemistry of Materials 2022, MRS Mid-Career Award in 2021, AICHE Alpha Chi Sigma Award 2021, ACS Central Science Disruptor and Innovator Prize in 2020, ACS Gibbs Medal in 2020, the Wilhelm Exner Medal from the Austrian Federal Minister of Science in 2018, the L'Oreal UNESCO Women in Science Award North America Laureate in 2017. She was awarded the ACS Applied Polymer Science Award in 2017, ACS Creative Polymer Chemistry Award in 2013 ACS Cope Scholar Award in 2011. She is a recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby Medal and Prize in 2009, IUPAC Creativity in Applied Polymer Science Prize in 2008, American Chemical Society Team Innovation Award 2001, R&D 100 Award, and R&D Magazine Editors Choice Best of the Best new technology for 2001.

  • Annelise E. Barron

    Annelise E. Barron

    Associate Professor of Bioengineering
    On Leave from 04/01/2024 To 06/30/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBiophysical mechanisms of host defense peptides (a.k.a. antimicrobial peptides) and their peptoid mimics; also, molecular and cellular biophysics of human innate immune responses.

  • Michael Bassik

    Michael Bassik

    Associate Professor of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are an interdisciplinary lab focused on two major areas:(1) we seek to understand mechanisms of cancer growth and drug resistance in order to find new therapeutic targets(2) we study mechanisms by which macrophages and other cells take up diverse materials by endocytosis and phagocytosis; these substrates range from bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells to drugs and protein toxins. To accomplish these goals, we develop and use new technologies for high-throughput functional genomics.

  • Fiona Baumer

    Fiona Baumer

    Assistant Professor of Neurology (Pediatric Neurology) and of Pediatrics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCauses of Disturbed Cognition in Pediatric Epilepsy

  • Philip Beachy

    Philip Beachy

    The Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor, Professor of Urology, of Developmental Biology and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsFunction of Hedgehog proteins and other extracellular signals in morphogenesis (pattern formation), in injury repair and regeneration (pattern maintenance). We study how the distribution of such signals is regulated in tissues, how cells perceive and respond to distinct concentrations of signals, and how such signaling pathways arose in evolution. We also study the normal roles of such signals in stem-cell physiology and their abnormal roles in the formation and expansion of cancer stem cells.

  • Gill Bejerano

    Gill Bejerano

    Professor of Developmental Biology, of Computer Science, of Pediatrics (Genetics) and of Biomedical Data Science

    Current Research and Scholarly Interests1. Automating monogenic patient diagnosis.
    2. The genomic signatures of independent divergent and convergent trait evolution in mammals.
    3. The logic of human gene regulation.
    4. The reasons for sequence ultraconservation.
    5. Cryptogenomics to bridge medical silos.
    6. Cryptogenetics to debate social injustice.
    7. Managing patient risk using machine learning.
    8. Understanding the flow of money in the US healthcare system.

  • Sean Bendall

    Sean Bendall

    Associate Professor of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur goal is to understand the mechanisms regulating the development of human systems. Drawing on both pluripotent stem cell biology, hematopoiesis, and immunology, combined with novel high-content single-cell analysis (CyTOF – Mass Cytometry) and imagining (MIBI-Multiplexed Ion Beam Imaging) we are creating templates of ‘normal’ human cellular behavior to both discover novel regulatory events and cell populations as well as understand dysfunctional processes such as cancer.

  • Jonathan Berger

    Jonathan Berger

    Denning Family Provostial Professor
    On Leave from 10/01/2023 To 06/30/2024

    BioJonathan Berger is the Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at Stanford University, where he teaches composition, music theory, and cognition at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
    Jonathan is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2016 winner of the Rome Prize.
    He was the founding co-director of the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts (SICA, now the Stanford Arts Institute) and founding director of Yale University’s Center for Studies in Music Technology
    Described as “gripping” by both the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, “poignant”, “richly evocative” (San Francisco Chronicle), “taut, and hauntingly beautiful” (NY Times), Jonathan Berger’s recent works deal with both consciousness and conscience. His monodrama, My Lai, toured internationally. The Kronos Quartet's recording was released by Smithsonian/Folkways. His opera, The Ritual of Breath is the Rite to Resist will be performed at Lincoln Center in July 2024.
    Thrice commissioned by The National Endowment for the Arts, Berger’a recent commissions include The Mellon and Rockefeller Foundations, Chamber Music Society, Lincoln Center, and Chamber Music America.
    Upcoming commissions include a new work for the Kronos Quartet.
    In addition to composition, Berger is an active researcher with over 80 publications in a wide range of fields relating to music, science and technology and has held research grants from DARPA, the Wallenberg Foundation, The National Academy of Sciences, the Keck Foundation, and others.
    Berger is the PI of a major grant from the Templeton Religion Trust to study how music and architecture interact to create a sense of awe.

  • Rebecca A. Bernert, PhD, ABPP, FT

    Rebecca A. Bernert, PhD, ABPP, FT

    Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Public Mental Health and Population Sciences)

    BioI am an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a licensed clinical psychologist in the Stanford University School of Medicine. I am a suicidologist, with subspecialty expertise in clinical trials, epidemiology, and suicide prevention best practices. I have joint specialty in behavioral sleep medicine, treatment development, and thanatology. I am Founding Director of The Stanford Suicide Prevention Research Laboratory, and Co-Chair a number of initiatives to support multidisciplinary efforts in suicide prevention. Our program utilizes cognitive, biological (e.g., fMRI), and behavioral testing paradigms, with an emphasis on translational therapeutics across the lifespan. Our mission is to identify novel therapeutics, including seminal work to establish the subfield of sleep and suicide prevention. A special focus is the development of rapid-action, low-risk interventions for the prevention of suicide. Our mission is to evaluate transdiagnostic risk factors and biomarkers underlying treatment response that may inform etiology, reduce stigma, and advance innovation. Advocating for its utility as a visible, yet non-stigmatizing warning sign of suicide—our earliest work delineated sleep as a risk factor for suicidal behaviors. Funded by NIH and DOD, we subsequently conducted the first suicide prevention clinical trials, testing efficacy of a rapid-action (6 h) insomnia treatment for suicidal behaviors. These use a mechanisms focus to identify central disease processes (eg, underlying neural circuitry, behavioral factors) for anti-suicidal response. An overarching aim is to harness new technologies to aid risk prediction, precision medicine, and intervention opportunity. We are committed to improving national training practices (e.g., national needs-assessment of medical training parameters; AI for suicide prevention), and lead hospital best practices for safety in screening, triage, and postvention.

    Regarding translation to policy, I have served as a content expert for nationally-directed health initiatives with NIH, VA, DOD, DARPA, SAMHSA, CDC, and The White House. I recently led development of the CA 2020-25 Statewide Strategy for Suicide Prevention, following invited testimony (CA State Assembly) and a commissioned Policy Brief on suicide prevention best practices. Advisory and advocacy work centers on how research guides public health policy and implementation. I am especially committed to initiatives promising impact to suicide prevention on a broad scale, including universal strategies for lethal means restriction and real-time surveillance of suicidal behaviors. To this end, I have been honored to serve as a content expert to The White House Office of Science and Technology for initiatives focused on technology innovation and led advisory work promoting suicide deterrent systems for private organizations and public sites, such as the Golden Gate Bridge. I have consulted for technology companies, as well as private industry and healthcare partners.

    Inspired by maternity leaves coinciding with the above work, I have a separate research line examining organizational development, inclusive practices, sleep and employee wellness. This addresses disparate impact of institutional and federal medical leave practices on recruitment and retention of women. Our program focuses on cost-effective policy for diversity training and reduced attrition of women in medicine, law, STEM and technology fields. As such, I am dedicated to spearheading development of a Stanford Center for Policy, Inclusive Practices, and Equity Education.

    To donate or partner with us, please contact Deborah Stinchfield (Stanford Medical Center Development) medicalgiving@stanford.edu or please contact us directly.

  • Edward Bertaccini

    Edward Bertaccini

    Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly Interestsmolecular modeling of anesthetic-protein interactions, molecular modeling of the ligand-gated ion channels

  • Carolyn Bertozzi

    Carolyn Bertozzi

    Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Radiology

    BioProfessor Carolyn Bertozzi's research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of cell surface sugars important to human health and disease. Her research group profiles changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and uses this information to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in the area of immuno-oncology.

    Dr. Bertozzi completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Harvard University and her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, focusing on the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharide analogs. During postdoctoral work at UC San Francisco, she studied the activity of endothelial oligosaccharides in promoting cell adhesion at sites of inflammation. She joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 2000, she came to Stanford University in June 2015, among the first faculty to join the interdisciplinary institute ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health). She is now the Baker Family Director of Stanford ChEM-H.

    Named a MacArthur Fellow in 1999, Dr. Bertozzi has received many awards for her dedication to chemistry, and to training a new generation of scientists fluent in both chemistry and biology. She has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and received the Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Heinrich Wieland Prize, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, and the Chemistry of the Future Solvay Prize, among others.

    The Bertozzi Group develops chemical tools to study the glycobiology underlying diseases such as cancer, inflammation, tuberculosis and most recently COVID-19. She is the inventor of "bioorthogonal chemistry", a class of chemical reactions compatible with living systems that enable molecular imaging and drug targeting. Her group also developed new therapeutic modalities for targeted degradation of extracellular biomolecules, such as antibody-enzyme conjugates and Lysosome Targeting Chimeras (LYTACs). As well, her group studies NGly1 deficiency, a rare genetic disease characterized by loss of the human N-glycanase.

    Several of the technologies developed in the Bertozzi lab have been adapted for commercial use. Actively engaged with several biotechnology start-ups, Dr. Bertozzi cofounded Redwood Bioscience, Enable Biosciences, Palleon Pharmaceuticals, InterVenn Bio, OliLux Bio, Grace Science LLC and Lycia Therapeutics. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Lilly.

  • Sandip Biswal, MD

    Sandip Biswal, MD

    Adjunct Clinical Professor, Radiology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe management of individuals suffering from chronic pain is unfortunately limited by poor diagnostic tests and therapies. Our research group is interested in 'imaging pain' by using novel imaging techniques to study peripheral nociception and inflammation with the goal of accurately identifying the location of pain generators. We are developing new approaches with positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (PET/MRI) and are currently in clinical trials.

  • Jose Humberto Blanchet Mancilla

    Jose Humberto Blanchet Mancilla

    Professor of Management Science and Engineering

    BioJose Blanchet is a Professor of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) at Stanford. Prior to joining MS&E, he was a professor at Columbia (Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, and Statistics, 2008-2017), and before that he taught at Harvard (Statistics, 2004-2008). Jose is a recipient of the 2010 Erlang Prize and several best publication awards in areas such as applied probability, simulation, operations management, and revenue management. He also received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2010. He worked as an analyst in Protego Financial Advisors, a leading investment bank in Mexico. He has research interests in applied probability and Monte Carlo methods. He is the Area Editor of Stochastic Models in Mathematics of Operations Research. He has served on the editorial board of Advances in Applied Probability, Bernoulli, Extremes, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Journal of Applied Probability, Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, and Stochastic Systems, among others.

  • Helen M. Blau

    Helen M. Blau

    Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor, Director, Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology and Professor, by courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProf. Helen Blau's research area is regenerative medicine with a focus on stem cells. Her research on nuclear reprogramming and demonstrating the plasticity of cell fate using cell fusion is well known and her laboratory has also pioneered the design of biomaterials to mimic the in vivo microenvironment and direct stem cell fate. Current findings are leading to more efficient iPS generation, cell based therapies by dedifferentiation a la newts, and discovery of novel molecules and therapies.

  • Nikolas Blevins, MD

    Nikolas Blevins, MD

    Larry and Sharon Malcolmson Professor in the School of Medicine, Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsInner ear microendoscopy -- Developing techniques for minimally-invasive imaging of inner ear microanatomy and neural pysiology. Applications include improved cochlear implant development, inner ear regenerative techniques, inner ear surgery, and auditory physiology.

    Microsurgical robotics -- Developing scalable microsurgical instrumentation and robotic techniques for use in head and neck surgery.

    Surgical Simulation -- Immersive environment for temporal bone surgical simulation.

  • Kwabena Boahen

    Kwabena Boahen

    Professor of Bioengineering, of Electrical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Computer Science

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBoahen's group analyzes neural behavior computationally to elucidate principles of neural design at the cellular, circuit, and systems levels; and synthesizes neuromorphic electronic systems that scale energy-use with size as efficiently as the brain does. This interdisciplinary research program bridges neurobiology and medicine with electronics and computer science, bringing together these seemingly disparate fields.