School of Medicine
Showing 891-900 of 1,556 Results
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Adel Mutahar
Postdoctoral Scholar, General and Vascular Surgery
BioDr. Adel Z. I. Mutahar is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Surgery at Stanford University, working under the mentorship of Dr. Frederick M. Dirbas. His research focuses on translational breast cancer biology and emerging radiotherapy technologies, with an emphasis on tumor–microenvironment interactions, immuno-oncology, and preclinical therapeutic development. His academic journey spans three countries—beginning in Yemen, advancing through India, and now progressing at Stanford—reflecting his commitment to impactful cancer research and global scientific advancement.
Dr. Mutahar began his career in Yemen, earning his Bachelor’s degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences before joining Abs Community College as a faculty member. From 2007–2013, he held several academic leadership roles, including Academic Director, Head of Evaluation, and Assistant Dean of Students, where he modernized curriculum, expanded hands-on diagnostic training, and strengthened laboratory education infrastructure in resource-limited settings. His work contributed to building a more skilled medical diagnostics workforce and improving pathways for laboratory science education.
Awarded a prestigious national merit scholarship, Dr. Mutahar continued his graduate and doctoral training in India, completing his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biotechnology with a focus on triple-negative breast cancer. During his doctoral work, he developed 3D tumor spheroid models and combinatorial therapeutic strategies, demonstrating synergy between anti-angiogenic agents and chemotherapy in TNBC. He further advanced this research by creating an orthotopic murine model to investigate metastatic progression and demonstrated that knockdown of the MTA1 gene in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) significantly suppressed TNBC invasion, angiogenesis, and metastatic spread, introducing a promising stromal-targeted therapeutic concept for aggressive breast cancer. This work earned recognition through travel grants, conference presentations, and a Best Poster Award. His scientific adaptability was further demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he uncovered a novel interaction between SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD and VEGF signaling.
At Stanford, his work emphases on FLASH radiotherapy, an ultrahigh-dose-rate modality with the potential to widen the therapeutic window by minimizing normal-tissue toxicity while maintaining tumor control. Working within Dr. Dirbas’s translational breast oncology program, Dr. Mutahar employs patient-derived xenografts, orthotopic murine models, spatial transcriptomics, single-cell RNA sequencing, and immune profiling to dissect the biological mechanisms governing treatment response. His research integrates multi-omics analysis to map early and late radiotherapy injury pathways—including senescence, apoptosis and fibrosis. His goal is to develop mechanism-driven radio-immunotherapy strategies and durable FLASH-RT combination regimens that can be translated into clinical trials for breast cancer, improving therapeutic durability, minimizing toxicity, and ultimately enhancing patient outcomes.
Dr. Mutahar’s long-term vision is to establish an independent laboratory at the intersection of radiobiology, immuno-oncology, and translational therapeutics. Guided by Dr. Dirbas’s mentorship and shaped by multidisciplinary experience across three continents, he aims to develop biologically informed treatment strategies that eradicate tumors while preserving normal tissue and immune integrity—ultimately improving quality of life and survival for women with aggressive breast cancers. -
Varsha Mysore Athreya
Postdoctoral Scholar, Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery
BioVarsha began her academic journey with a BS in Speech and Hearing from the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) in Mysuru, India. She earned her Master’s degree in Audiology in 2018, with a thesis focused on temporal processing and speech perception in noisy environments. She completed her doctoral degree in May 2024, working with Dr. Bharadwaj on age-related effects on temporal processing and speech perception, and with Dr. Heinz on the effects of peripheral hearing damage on cortical auditory responses. Currently, she is a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University with Dr. Matthew Fitzgerald, where she is developing pipelines for handling large clinical datasets and applying machine learning to enhance clinical diagnosis and management.
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Dhriti Nagar
Postdoctoral Scholar, Neonatal and Developmental Medicine
BioPremature birth is a leading cause of developmental and neuropsychiatric disorders in children. One of the factors causing these defects is lowered levels of available oxygen (hypoxia) in the newborn due to immature lungs. My research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying hypoxia-induced developmental disorders of the nervous system due to preterm birth.
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Michitaka Nakano
Basic Life Research Scientist, Medicine - Med/Hematology
BioI am a MD/PhD postdoctoral fellow and medical oncologist with a long-standing interest in translational cancer research. My long-term goal is to be a lab-based physician-scientist and independent academic researcher, translating basic cancer research, and mentoring next-generation scientists. My thesis work in Japan focused on cancer stem cell equilibrium by uniquely applying organoid culture as a method to elucidate cancer stem cell dynamics, which was awarded in Japanese Cancer Association. Along with the development of the field represented by success in T cell checkpoint, my interest gradually shifted to immune oncology while I examined numerous numbers of cancer patients as a medical oncology fellow. My postdoctoral fellowship at Calvin Kuo Lab in Stanford (2019-present) focuses on tumor immune microenvironment. Kuo lab developed a unique 3D air-liquid interface (ALI) organoid system that cultures tumors while preserving their endogenous infiltrating immune cells (T,B ,NK, Myeloid cells). My postdoctoral work will prove the significance of organoids as a translational tool to discover tumor-immune interaction by novel checkpoint inhibitors for immune cells, which can be broadly applicable to basic cancer biology, precision medicine, therapeutics validation and biomarker discovery.
