Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI)
Showing 161-180 of 215 Results
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Chelse Spinner, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Scholar, Neonatal and Developmental Medicine
BioAn Ohio native, Dr. Chelse Spinner obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences (Biomedical Studies) with a minor in Health Education from the University of Cincinnati. She earned a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Maternal & Child Health (MCH) from the University of South Florida. She received a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health Sciences with a concentration in Behavioral Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Spinner is certified in public health and has experience working across health systems. Her research interests include health disparities, women’s health, social determinants of health, domains of structural racism, and oral-systemic health within the MCH population. She employs quantitative and qualitative methods in the hopes of providing innovative and evidence-informed research to improve health outcomes for marginalized and underserved communities. Her research agenda intends to focus on the exploration of social and structural factors that impact health and well-being.
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Ashley Styczynski
Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor, Medicine - Infectious Diseases
BioAshley Styczynski, MD, MPH, is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases & Geographic Medicine and Global Health Faculty Fellow, and a Medical Officer in the International Infection and Control Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Styczynski's research interests are in infectious disease epidemiology, global health, emerging infections, and antimicrobial resistance. She holds an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an MD from University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to coming to Stanford for her infectious disease fellowship, she spent two years as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer at the CDC. During her time as an EIS officer, Dr. Styczynski conducted outbreak investigations on Zika virus, vaccinia virus, and rabies. She is currently conducting research on antimicrobial resistance and interventions to reduce nosocomial infections within low-resource healthcare facilities globally.
List of publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/ashley.styczynski.1/bibliography/public/ -
Ayesha Sujan
Postdoctoral Scholar, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
BioAyesha C. Sujan, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with specialized clinical training in pediatric pain psychology and extensive research experience in pharmacoepidemiology, particularly in using large administrative datasets to study central nervous system medication and substance use during pregnancy. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow under the primary mentorship of Dr. Jennifer Rabbitts, Chief of Pediatric Pain, in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is supported by an NIH T32 training grant (T32GM089626) focused on developing leaders in academic anesthesiology and pain medicine research. In addition to contributing to Dr. Rabbitts’ NIH-funded research on mechanisms and treatment of pain in youth undergoing surgery, she leads independent studies on pediatric chronic abdominal pain and disorders of gut–brain interaction, with a growing focus on central nervous system medication treatment for these conditions. Clinically, she conducts psychosocial assessments and provides evidence-based pain psychology treatment one day per week (20% FTE) in the outpatient pediatric pain management clinic at Stanford University School of Medicine, ensuring strong clinical grounding and translational relevance of her research program.
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Wenfei Sun
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe explore neural circuits regulating memory and systemic metabolism, integrating neuroscience and metabolic biology to tackle cognitive decline and metabolic disorders.
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Sakura Tanaka
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioDr. Tanaka is a postdoctoral scholar advised by Dr. Nirao Shah in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She received her PhD in Marine and Estuarine Environmental Sciences from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2022. After transitioning from aquaculture science to neuroscience, she now studies how reproductive states reshape the neural circuits that govern the body's behavioral and physiological demands, integrating molecular biology, bioinformatics, neuroscience, and reproductive biology.
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Diana Tordoff
Instructor, Obstetrics & Gynecology - General
BioDiana M. Tordoff, PhD, MPH is an epidemiologist with expertise in LGBTQ+ health equity and gynecological health research. Dr. Tordoff completed her PhD and MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Washington and received a BA with honors in Mathematics from Vassar College. She is also an affiliated researcher with The PRIDE Study (pridestudy.org), where she recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship. Her current research focuses on the impact of exogenous hormones (gender affirming hormones and menopause hormone therapy) on sexual and gynecological health. Her research interests include sexual and reproductive health, menopause, the vaginal microbiome, molecular epidemiology, intersectionality, and community-engaged research methods.
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Allison Vreeland
Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Child Development
BioDr. Allison Vreeland (she/her) is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in working with children, teens, and families. Dr. Vreeland received her PhD in Clinical Psychological Science with a minor in Quantitative Studies at Vanderbilt University. She completed her predoctoral clinical internship in Child Psychology at UCSF with specialty training through the Child Trauma Research Program. She completed a research and clinical fellowship in the Immune Behavioral Health Clinic at Stanford University, where she focused her research efforts on examining neurological markers of patients diagnosed with pediatric acute neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS). Clinically, Dr. Vreeland’s program of clinical care is focused on the delivery of evidence-based clinical interventions for individuals with anxiety, OCD, PANS/PANDAS, mood disorders, and behavioral challenges.
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Bing Wang
Postdoctoral Scholar, Stem Cell Transplantation
BioMy academic training and research experience have equipped me with multidisciplinary skills and knowledge of molecular biology and immunology.
I led two projects when I was an undergraduate, in which I got primary academic learning. My team member and I investigated the bacteria content in drinking water from two types of machines that are commonly used in colleges under the guidance of our experimental microbiology teacher Zhihong Zhong. Secondly, we produced a hybridoma cell line secreting monoclonal antibody against the core antigen of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to develop an ELISA kit for the detection of HCV under the guidance of Dr. Rushi Liu and Minjing Liao.
Thereafter, as a Ph. D. candidate at Xiaoming Feng’s lab, my research primarily focused on understanding the biology of regulatory T cells (Treg) and CD11c+ myeloid cells using cutting-edge single-cell sequencing and conditional knockout mice under healthy and disease conditions. We first revealed the heterogeneity and bifurcated differentiation pathway of human Tregs from normal donors and transplanted patients at the single-cell transcriptome level. A subsequent first and corresponding author publication identified a key innate responsive protein in CD11c+ alveolar macrophages, NRP2, that protects mice from lung injury via promoting the phagocytosis of neutrophils. I also participated in two projects regarding the role of a serine/threonine kinase, LKB1, in mice CD11c+ dendritic cells from lymphoid tissues and adipose tissue with diet-induced obesity. These academic experiences guided me into a strong passion and independent capacities for biomedical studies.
For my postdoctoral training, I will focus on developing Treg therapies and genetic stem cell therapy to cure patients with IPEX syndrome (a severe autoimmune disease) at preclinical and clinical stages, and other immune disorders. My sponsor Dr. Rosa Bacchetta is a well-known leader in treating IPEX patients and developing Treg therapies. My co-mentor Dr. Maria Grazia Roncarolo is a well-recognized pediatric immunologist and also one of the pioneers in the stem cell and gene therapy field, who discovered the type 1 regulatory T cells or Tr1 cells and translate the scientific discoveries into novel Treg therapies. Both of them have an excellent record of training postdoctoral fellows. The proposed projects will provide me with great opportunities in cutting-edge technology and translational research and outline a set of career development including grant writing, public presentation, and lab management, which will enhance my ability to become an independent investigator and help me to reach my goal of developing efficient and safe Treg therapies for a wide range of immune disorders and associated human diseases.
