School of Medicine
Showing 21-40 of 43 Results
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Juliana Idoyaga
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Idoyaga Lab is focused on the function and biology of dendritic cells, which are specialized antigen-presenting cells that initiate and modulate our body’s immune responses. Considering their importance in orchestrating the quality and quantity of immune responses, dendritic cells are an indisputable target for vaccines and therapies.
Dendritic cells are not one cell type, but a network of cells comprised of many subsets or subpopulations with distinct developmental pathways and tissue localization. It is becoming apparent that each dendritic cell subset is different in its capacity to induce and modulate specific types of immune responses; however, there is still a lack of resolution and deep understanding of dendritic cell subset functional specialization. This gap in knowledge is an impediment for the rational design of immune interventions. Our research program focuses on advancing our understanding of mouse and human dendritic cell subsets, revealing their endowed capacity to induce distinct types of immune responses, and designing novel strategies to exploit them for vaccines and therapies. -
Peter K. Jackson
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (Baxter Labs) and of Pathology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCell cycle and cyclin control of DNA replication .
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Christine Jacobs-Wagner
Dennis Cunningham Professor, Professor of Biology and of Microbiology and Immunology
BioChristine Jacobs-Wagner is a Dennis Cunningham Professor in the Department of Biology and the ChEM-H Institute at Stanford University. She is interested in understanding the fundamental mechanisms and principles by which cells, and, in particular, bacterial cells, are able to multiple. She received her PhD in Biochemistry in 1996 from the University of Liège, Belgium where she unraveled a molecular mechanism by which some bacterial pathogens sense and respond to antibiotics attack to achieve resistance. For this work, she received multiple awards including the 1997 GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists. During her postdoctoral work at Stanford Medical School, she demonstrated that bacteria can localize regulatory proteins to specific intracellular regions to control signal transduction and the cell cycle, uncovering a new, unsuspected level of bacterial regulation.
She started her own lab at Yale University in 2001. Over the years, her group made major contributions in the emerging field of bacterial cell biology and provided key molecular insights into the temporal and spatial mechanisms involved in cell morphogenesis, cell polarization, chromosome segregation and cell cycle control. For her distinguished work, she received the Pew Scholars award from the Pew Charitable Trust, the Woman in Cell Biology Junior award from the American Society of Cell Biology and the Eli Lilly award from the American Society of Microbiology. She held the Maxine F. Singer and William H. Fleming professor chairs at Yale. She was elected to the Connecticut academy of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology and the National Academy of Sciences. She has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2008.
Her lab moved to Stanford in 2019. Current research examines the general principles and spatiotemporal mechanisms by which bacterial cells replicate, using Caulobacter crescentus and Escherichia coli as models. Recently, the Jacobs-Wagner lab expanded their interests to the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi, revealing unsuspected ways by which this pathogen grows and causes disease -
Prasanna Jagannathan
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
BioI am an Infectious Diseases physician-scientist with a research program in human immunology of malaria and clinical trials of immune modulatory interventions. Our group has been conducting detailed longitudinal cohort studies in children and pregnant women in order to study how repeated malaria shapes the cellular immune response. We are also studying how malaria control interventions such as antimalarial chemoprevention and vector control shape the acquisition and/or maintenance of protective immunity to malaria. We have expanded this work to not only include studying the mechanisms driving naturally acquired immunity to malaria, but other infectious diseases, including SARS CoV-2. We have also lead and/or participated in studies evaluating therapeutic strategies for patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.
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Karla Kirkegaard
Violetta L. Horton Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe biochemistry of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase function, the cell biology of the membrane rearrangements induced by positive-strand RNA virus infection of human cells, and the genetics of RNA viruses, which, with their high error rates, live at the brink of error catastrophe, are investigated in the Kirkegaard laboratory.
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Holden Maecker
Professor (Research) of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI'm interested in immune monitoring of T cell responses to chronic pathogens and cancer, and the correlation of T cell response signatures with disease protection.
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Edward Mocarski
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests focused on the biology and pathogenesis of cytomegalovirus (CMV), an opportunistic pathogen that causes significant disease worldwide, reporting discoveries in areas of CMV gene regulation, DNA replication and packaging, maturation, impact on the host cell, disease pathogenesis, latency and reactivation, host cell death signaling and chemokine system. In the last 20 years of my academic career, we studied viral cell death suppressors and discovered ZBP1-RIPK3 necroptosis.
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Denise M. Monack
Martha Meier Weiland Professor in the School of Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe primary focus of my research is to understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms of intracellular bacterial pathogenesis. We use several model systems to study complex host-pathogen interactions in the gut and in immune cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells. Ultimately we would like to understand how Salmonella persists within certain hosts for years in the face of a robust immune response.
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Peter Parham
Professor of Structural Biology and, by courtesy, of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Parham laboratory investigates the biology, genetics, and evolution of MHC class I molecules and NK cell receptors.
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Trung Hoang Minh Pham
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsUncovering mechanisms of tissue immunity and immunophysiology during persistent infection
The immune system safeguards the health of complex organisms by rapidly eliminating invading pathogens, curbing infection-induced tissue disruptions, and maintaining tissue homeostasis. Many bacterial pathogens evade host antimicrobial mechanisms and persist in infected tissues at low levels for long periods of time even in the presence of innate and adaptive immune resistance. During persistent infection, the immune system simultaneously orchestrates antimicrobial responses to contain the pathogen, repairs damaged tissue, regulates nutrient resources, and maintains other tissue physiologic functions to ensure host survival. Failure of any of these tasks leads to uncontrolled infection, devastating disease, and even death. The goals of our research are to understand:
1)What are the innate and adaptive immune cellular mechanisms that contain pathogens during persistent infection?
2)How are tissue physiological functions, such as tissue repair and nutrient regulation, maintained during persistent infection?
3)How do pathogens survive innate and adaptive antimicrobial mechanisms in infected tissues?
4)How does persistent infection impact host immunity to secondary infections of a similar or different pathogen?
Through investigating these fundamental questions, we may be able to decode the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that can be harnessed to eradicate infections, promote tissue resilience, and restore health after an infectious insult. We employ animal infection models and bring together immunology, tissue biology, microbiology, and genetics to uncover the mechanisms of tissue immunity and immunophysiology during persistent infection from the molecular to organismal level.
Current areas of research:
•Development, maintenance, and plasticity of macrophage functional diversity in infected tissue
•Tissue repair and nutrient regulation during persistent infection
•Cellular dynamics and bacterial persistence in lymphoid organs
We are looking for highly motivated team members who are passionate about making impactful scientific discoveries to join our group at all levels. For opportunities and positions available for pre-doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows, please contact tpham8@stanford.edu! -
Charles G. Prober, MD
Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and, by courtesy, of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interest is in the epidemiology, pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of infections in children. Much of this research has focused on viral infections, especially those caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV). I have conducted a number of studies concerned with the epidemiology of HSV-2 infections in pregnant women, their partners, and neonates.
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David A. Relman
Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
On Partial Leave from 04/29/2024 To 10/30/2024Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy investigative program focuses on human-microbe interactions and human microbial ecology, and primarily concerns the ecology of human indigenous microbial communities; a secondary interest concerns the classification of humans with systemic infectious diseases, based on features of genome-wide gene transcript abundance patterns and pther aspects of the host response.
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Peter Sarnow
Burt and Marion Avery Professor of Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur laboratory studies virus-host interactions with an emphasis microRNA-mediated gene regulation and on translational control. The mechanism by which a liver-specific microRNA regulates hepatitis C virus genome replication is under intense scrutiny. In addition, the mechanism of internal ribosome entry in certain cellular and viral mRNAs and its biological role in growth and development is being investigated.
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David Schneider
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
On Partial Leave from 03/24/2024 To 10/23/2024Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study innate immunity and microbial pathogenesis. We have been studying models for a variety of bacterial infections including: Listeria, Mycobacteria, Salmonella and Streptococcus as well as some fungi, malaria and viruses. Our current focus is to determine how we recover from infections.
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Robert Siegel
Professor (Teaching) of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy work is primarily involved in medical education and curricular development, especially in the areas of infectious disease, virology, HIV, and molecular biology. Projects included electronic applications to science education, three dimensional model building, service learning, and the development of undergraduate research projects.
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Upinder Singh
Stanford Medicine Professor of Infectious Disease and Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases & Geographic Medicine) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab elucidates the molecular basis of pathogenesis of the protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica. We use genetic and genomic approaches to identify novel virulence determinants and to characterize the global epidemiology of the parasite.
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Justin L. Sonnenburg
Alex and Susie Algard Endowed Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe goals of the Sonnenburg Lab research program are to (i) elucidate the basic mechanisms that underlie dynamics within the gut microbiota and (ii) devise and implement strategies to prevent and treat disease in humans via the gut microbiota. We investigate the principles that govern gut microbial community function and interaction with the host using a broad range of experimental approaches including studies of microbiomes in diverse human cohorts.
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Hawa Racine Thiam
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCellular Biophysical Mechanisms of Innate Immune Cells Functions
