School of Medicine
Showing 71-80 of 94 Results
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Derick Okwan
Assistant Professor of Pathology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBroadly, the Okwan lab’s primary interest is to understand how and why the immune system contributes to nearly all chronic diseases. The immune system of the modern human has evolved from a history of stress to the species: famines, continual bouts of lethal pandemics, as well as major climate/environmental and migratory changes that exposed the immune system to novel threats. At the forefront of these challenges are innate immune cells, particularly neutrophils, the most abundant leukocytes. For the first time in human history – at least in the western world- we live in an era of abundance. The Okwan lab is interested in understanding how this traumatic history creates a functional mismatch for the neutrophil, which we believe underpins their roles in chronic diseases of the modern era: cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and autoimmune disorders. Rather than wholesale depletion of neutrophils and innate immune cells, we seek to identify novel approaches to leverage these cells to combat various diseases.
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Meeta Raman Patel
Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Gastroenterology
BioDr. Patel has been working with children with autism and other disabilities for 30 years. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Dr. Patel received a BS degree from the University of California at Davis in 1996 in Psychology with an emphasis in Biology. She continued her graduate training in Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Patel received her PhD in Psychology with an emphasis in Behavior Analysis under the supervision of Dr. James Carr, Dr. Patrick Ghezzi, and Dr. Sidney Bijou in 2000.
She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2001 under the supervision of Dr. Cathleen Piazza and Dr. Wayne Fisher. Dr. Patel joined the faculty at the Marcus and Kennedy Krieger Institutes in 2001 and Emory University School of Medicine in 2002. Dr. Patel was a case manager in the Pediatric Feeding Disorders and Early Intervention Programs at the Marcus and Kennedy Krieger Institutes from 2001-2003. In 2003, she started Clinic 4 Kidz, which is a Home-Based Interdisciplinary Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of Clinic 4 Kidz. Dr. Patel is also an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Gastroenterology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Her research and clinical interests focus on treating feeding problems in children who have underlying medical issues or children diagnosed with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. In addition, she has expertise in working with children with autism and other developmental disabilities.
She is currently an associate editor for Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Patel is also on the editorial boards of Behavior Analysis in Practice and Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities. She is serving as a guest editor for the research topic “Unpacking the Correlation between Feeding Difficulties and Feeding Disorders in Children and Adolescents” for Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Patel also serves as a guest reviewer for several behavioral and pediatric journals. She has published research studies in peer-reviewed journals and has authored invited book chapters. Dr. Patel has also been invited to present at numerous conferences and at various hospitals all over the world.
Dr. Patel also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Schools of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco and on she is on the Clinical Advisory Board for the MEAL PlanR project funded by the Georgia Research Alliance. -
David A. Relman
Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current 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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Michael J Rosen, MD, MSCI
Stanford University Endowed Professor for Pediatric IBD and Celiac Disease
BioDr. Rosen is a pediatric gastroenterologist and physician scientist who has been devoted to advancing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) research and care for 25 years. He is the inaugural Stanford University Endowed Professor for Pediatric IBD and Celiac Disease. He is also Director of the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Center for IBD and Celiac Disease, which has achieved nationally leading clinical outcomes under his direction. Dr. Rosen’s research expertise crosses mucosal immunology and epithelial biology and clinical and translational investigation. His NIH-funded laboratory has demonstrated the protective role for type 2 cytokines in chronic intestinal inflammation and advanced intestinal organoids as a model to study IBD. His clinical research has demonstrated how proactive therapeutic drug monitoring can be incorporated into clinical practice to optimize ant-TNF therapy treatment response. Dr. Rosen led the multicenter ARCH Study, which demonstrated the importance of intensified anti-TNF drug dosing in pediatric acute severe ulcerative colitis. Presently, he is co-principal investigator for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation’s Cohort for Pediatric Translational and Clinical Research in IBD (CAPTURE IBD) which will advance precision medicine for children with IBD.
After graduating from Duke University, Dr. Rosen attended Harvard Medical School, followed by pediatrics residency at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center. He pursued his pediatric gastroenterology fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he received a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation. He started his faculty career at Vanderbilt and then moved to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. There he rose to Medical Director of the Schubert Martin IBD Center and Associate Director for Faculty Development in the Gastroenterology division before moving to Stanford in 2021. Dr. Rosen serves on the editorial board for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and the National Scientific Advisory Committee for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Outside of work, Dr. Rosen enjoys spending time with his wife and two children at their activities, watching movies, downhill skiing, and getting outside. -
Nazish Sayed MD, PhD
Associate Professor (Research) of Surgery (Vascular Surgery)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Sayed Laboratory investigates how endothelial dysfunction contributes to cardiovascular disease and leverages human stem cell technologies to identify novel therapeutic strategies. Our research integrates patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), engineered cardiac tissues, organoids, human biospecimens, and multi-omic technologies to uncover mechanisms underlying inherited and acquired cardiovascular diseases.
A major focus of the laboratory is understanding endothelial–cardiomyocyte communication in cardiomyopathy. Using patient-specific iPSCs, human cardiac organoids, engineered heart tissues, spatial transcriptomics, and single-cell multi-omics, we study how endothelial dysfunction drives myocardial fibrosis, inflammation, and heart failure. Current efforts include investigations into LMNA-related dilated cardiomyopathy, endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT), and mechanisms of fibrotic remodeling.
A second major area of research is cardio-oncology. The laboratory develops human disease models to understand cardiovascular complications associated with cancer therapies, including tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors. These studies have identified novel vascular mechanisms underlying treatment-related hypertension, cardiomyopathy, and heart failure.
The laboratory also investigates cardiovascular aging, toxic environmental exposures, rare vascular diseases, and regenerative medicine. By integrating human tissues, advanced stem cell models, genome engineering, spatial biology, and artificial intelligence–enabled multi-omic analyses, our goal is to develop precision therapeutic strategies that improve cardiovascular health and patient outcomes.
