School of Medicine


Showing 81-90 of 4,726 Results

  • Ruben Alvero, M.D.

    Ruben Alvero, M.D.

    Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility)

    BioDr. Ruben Alvero is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford Medical School and is the Division Director of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. He is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American College of Surgeons.

    Following undergraduate training at Harvard College (BA, Economics, 1980), Dr. Alvero received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland in 1986. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (1990) and a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the National Institutes of Health (NIH, 1995).

    Dr. Alvero was the Division Director for Infertility Services at the National Naval Medical Center (Bethesda) and Walter Reed Army Medical Center and faculty in the NIH-sponsored fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Alvero remained a reserve Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps until 2012 and during 27 years in the Army was mobilized several times for missions around the world, including service in Iraq, Kuwait, Mongolia, Germany and various locations in the United States.

    Dr. Alvero was Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Vice Chair for Education at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Director of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies, and founding member of the Center for Surgical Innovation. Dr. Alvero was Residency Program Director in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado. He was subsequently Division and Fellowship Director at Brown University.

    The Council in Residency Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology awarded him its National Faculty Award for Excellence three times. He has been NIH-funded, most recently as part of the Reproductive Medicine Network.

    Dr. Alvero is currently the Vice President of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology, the national organization of fertility specialists and will take over as President in October 2020.

    Dr. Alvero’s clinical interests include IVF, polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and robotic surgery. Dr. Alvero’s research interests include non-invasive evaluation of embryo quality, cost-effectiveness analysis, and the role of critical thinking in medical education. A fluent Spanish-speaker, Dr. Alvero is also dedicated to improving the health of the Latinx community.

    Dr. Alvero is happiest on the water, whether sailing or singles rowing. He is also constantly attempting to improve his mastery of Latin American cuisine. Most of all, he loves spending time with his family.

  • Cristina Maria Alvira

    Cristina Maria Alvira

    Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Critical Care)
    On Leave from 04/01/2024 To 08/01/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe overall objective of the Alvira Laboratory is to elucidate the mechanisms that promote postnatal lung development and repair, by focusing on three main scientific goals: (i) identification of the signaling pathways that direct the transition between the saccular and alveolar stages of lung development; (ii) exploration of the interplay between postnatal vascular and alveolar development; and (iii) determination of developmentally regulated pathways that mediate lung repair after injury.

  • Jennifer Alyono, MD MS

    Jennifer Alyono, MD MS

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery)

    BioDr. Alyono completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry as well as her master’s degree in Bioengineering at Stanford University. After completing medical school at the University of California, San Diego, she returned to Stanford where she completed both her residency in Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, as well as her fellowship in Otology/Neurotology and Skull base surgery. Clinically, Dr. Alyono specializes in adult and pediatric surgery for disorders of the middle ear, inner ear, ear canal, facial nerve, and skull base. This includes care for hearing loss, tympanic membrane perforations, cholesteatoma, glomus tumors, and vestibular schwannomas, among others. Her research interests lie in hearing in population health, quality of care, and technology in medicine.

  • Derek F. Amanatullah, M.D., Ph.D.

    Derek F. Amanatullah, M.D., Ph.D.

    Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery

    BioDr. Amanatullah specializes in hip and knee replacements for individuals with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, infectious arthritis and avascular necrosis. He also performs revision surgeries of knee and hip implants with problems.

  • Manuel R. Amieva

    Manuel R. Amieva

    Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy laboratory studies how bacteria colonize our bodies for long periods of time, and how interactions between bacteria and the epithelial surfaces of the gastrointestinal tract and skin may lead to disease. Epithelial surfaces are the first barrier against infection, but they also where our bodies meet and co-evolve with the microbial world.. Several of our studies have focused on the epithelial junctions as a target for bacterial pathogens. The host epithelium uses its epithelial junctions to form a tight but dynamic barrier with an external surface that is inhospitable to microbial attachment, secretes anti-microbial compounds, and has a rapid rate of self-renewal. The balance in the microbe-epithelial relationship results in silent commensalism or symbiosis; an imbalance results in diseases ranging from acute bacterial invasive disease to chronic ulcers or carcinoma.

    Our laboratory has developed novel microscopy applications such as quantitative 3D confocal microscopy, electron microscopy, time-lapse imaging, microinjection and micromanipulation to visualize the interaction of pathogens with epithelial cells in culture and in animal and human tissues. Many of out studies focus on the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, but we have also expanded our investigations to include the intestinal pathogens Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica, and the skin pathogen and colonizer Staphylococcus aureus. I believe that elucidating how microbes communicate with and alter our epithelial cells at a molecular level will be important for finding novel therapeutic targets to control mucosal colonization and prevent invasive disease.

    Using this perspective, we have uncovered several novel concepts of how bacteria colonize and breach our epithelial surfaces. For example, we discovered that Helicobacter pylori target the intercellular junctions, and in particular that the virulence factor CagA affects junction assembly and cell polarity. This confers H. pylori the ability to extract nutrients and grow directly on the epithelial surface. We also found that these properties of CagA have consequences for cellular transformation of the epithelium. For instance, we showed that H. pylori affect the activity and state of epithelial stem cells in the stomach by colonizing the epithelial surface deep in the gastric glands. This gland-associated population is essential for pathological inflammation and hyperplasia in animal models, and confers significant colonization advantages to the bacteria. Our Listeria research uncovered a new mechanism and site where bacteria can breach the gastrointestinal epithelial barrier to invade. We found that Listeria find their receptor for invasion at sites of epithelial senescence, where the epithelial junctions undergo dynamic turnover. To study Salmonella and H. pylori we have developed a human organoid model to study their interactions with human gut epithelium in vitro. To study Staphylococcus aureus pathogenesis, we have developed methods to visualize infection at the scale of a single bacterial microcolony using an organoid culture system of human keratinocytes and fibroblasts that grow into a 3D skin-equivalent. We recently identified several proteins at the eptithelial junctions as host factors involved in the pathogenesis of one of Staphylococcus aureus major toxins.