School of Medicine
Showing 101-200 of 1,596 Results
-
Rebecca Bilden
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioRebecca Bilden, PhD, MSc is a T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in Pain and Substance Use at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she conducts research under the mentorship of Drs. Keith Humphreys and Brian Bateman. Dr. Bilden is a health services researcher and decision scientist whose work focuses on improving access to treatment for substance use disorders through evidence-based policy and simulation modeling. By integrating qualitative insights into models, she analyzes system dynamics and develops strategies to improve care delivery within complex healthcare systems.
Dr. Bilden earned her PhD in Health Services Research and Policy from the University of Pittsburgh, an MSc in Applied Data Science and Statistics from the University of Exeter, and a BA in Pure and Applied Mathematics from Boston University. Her current research focuses on evaluating opioid-related policies, improving treatment retention among people with substance use disorders, and expanding access to care in carceral settings. -
Christine Bird
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioDr. Bird received her PhD in Clinical Psychology and Quantitative Statistics from UCLA and completed her clinical psychology internship at the West Los Angeles VA. She is currently an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford School of Medicine, working directly with Shannon Wiltsey Stirman in the CREATE Alacrity Center. Prior to academia, Dr. Bird worked in industry and nonprofit settings as a tech entrepreneur and business executive.
Dr. Bird's research focuses on the development and implementation of AI-enabled tools for behavioral health interventions. She examines how AI technologies can support therapist workflows, enhance fidelity to evidence-based practices, and improve mental health care delivery for both clinicians and paraprofessional providers. Dr. Bird is particularly interested in identifying sustainable pathways for translating academic innovations in digital mental health into real-world practice, with the goal of increasing equity and access to care. -
Mahamaya Biswal
Postdoctoral Scholar, Molecular and Cellular Physiology
BioMahamaya is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University, where she specializes in Cellular and structural biology with a focus on membrane protein biogenesis, quality control, and the development of innovative nanobody technologies. Her research integrates advanced cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), cell biology, and nanobody engineering to unravel the mechanisms governing the assembly and maturation of membrane protein biogenesis factor hubs with a focus on Voltage gated ion channels as a model substrate.
Dr. Biswal’s scientific journey began with an integrated M.Tech in Biotechnology degree from D.Y. Patil University, India, where she conducted foundational research on bacterial persister cell formation at BARC and characterized breast cancer proteins ZBRK1 and BRCA1 at ACTREC,. After spending a brief time in biotech industry at Yashraj Biotechnology Ltd., Mumbai, optimizing purification pipelines for cancer antigens used in diagnostic kits and facilitating technology transfer from R&D to manufacturing, she moved to US to join UC Riverside’s PhD program under Department of Biochemistry and supervision of Dr. Jikui Song. She made significant advances in understanding the structural dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Notably, she solved the X-ray crystal structure of the NSP7-8 complex, a key cofactor for the viral replicase, and also elucidated the interaction between the viral nucleocapsid protein and human G3BP1. Her doctoral and postdoctoral work has also contributed to studies on viral immune evasion, including the structural basis for STAT2 antagonization by DENV2 NS5.
At Stanford, Dr. Biswal has expanded her expertise to the structural and functional study of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and currently focusing on gaining mechanistic insights on Membrane protein biogenesis factor hubs by combining cell biology and structural biology expertise. She is also developing nanobody libraries targeting synaptic vesicles and bacterial death effectors for in situ tomography and potential therapeutic applications respectively. Dr. Biswal is a committed mentor, having supervised graduate and undergraduate students, and is dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion in science through active involvement in organizations such as AWIS, BioAIMS, and BSS (India). Her scientific contributions have been recognized with honors including the HEERF Dissertation Year Fellowship, the Mary K. and Randolph T. Wedding Prize, and best poster awards at UC Riverside. Dr. Biswal’s long-term vision is to lead a research program that translates structural insights into therapeutic strategies for neurological and infectious diseases, advancing both scientific knowledge and the next generation of scientists. -
Andreas Blaha
Postdoctoral Scholar, Molecular and Cellular Physiology
BioOriginally from a tiny village in Northern Germany, Andreas moved to the city for his bachelor’s from the University of Hamburg. After graduating with a master’s in biochemistry from the University of Tübingen in Southwestern Germany, Andreas moved abroad for his PhD to Vienna, Austria. At the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), he discovered a complex on the sperm surface that connects to the egg membrane. Having studied the function of intricate membrane protein complexes, Andreas made the journey overseas to join the Pleiner lab and investigate how the cell manages and coordinates their production. In his free time, Andreas enjoys hiking in summer and skiing in winter.
-
MacKenzie Bolen
Postdoctoral Scholar, Neurology and Neurological Sciences
BioDr. MacKenzie “Mack” Bolen’s defining research passion is to leverage accessible and modifiable lifestyle factors to mitigate neurodegenerative risk. During her undergraduate education at Austin College in Texas, she began pursuing her interest in neurodegeneration by conducting research focused on the neuroprotective benefits of the ketogenic diet. This work evolved into an honors thesis investigating markers of inflammation in saliva from contact sport athletes and culminated in a TEDx talk on sports-related brain injuries. These experiences cemented her desire to understand the minutiae of the brain and catalyzed her decision to pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Florida (UF). During Mack’s training under Dr. MG. Tansey at UF, her dissertation work generated global collaborations centered on a multiomic approach that leverages machine learning to identify peripheral biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets to slow the onset or progression of Parkinson’s disease. A hallmark of Mack’s career has been participating in collaborative team science and mentorship of the next generation of scientists, where she has consistently mentored advanced and budding scientists within the Gainesville community and collaborated on several manuscripts from labs across the nation. In addition to her scholarly work, she regularly volunteered at the UF Neuromedicine Intensive Care Unit (Neuro ICU) while pursuing her Ph.D. to better understand the clinical perspective of neurodegeneration.
By blending her Ph.D. training and experiences in the Neuro ICU, Mack hopes to actively improve the treatment of individuals living with neurodegeneration and continue to push the frontier of medicine as a postdoctoral scholar in Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford. Now under the mentorship of Dr. K. Poston, Mack will continue to access essential training at the intersection of immunology and Parkinson’s disease, via the investigation of the gut-brain axis. As a former collegiate soccer player, Mack loves to pretend to relive her glory days during rec-league on the weekends and can also be found struggling through a Yin yoga class. -
Anna Booman
Member, Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI)
BioAnna Booman, PhD, MS is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine. She conducts perinatal pharmacoepidemiology research to study the safety and effectiveness of medication use during pregnancy, since most pregnant individuals cannot be included in clinical trials. She uses large observational datasets, such as the Merative MarketScan Database, and complex epidemiologic methods in her research.
Dr. Booman received her PhD in Epidemiology from the Oregon Health & Science University School of Public Health, her MS in Computational Biology and Quantitative Genetics from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her BS in Mathematical Biology (minor: Computer Science) from the College of William & Mary. Her research has spanned many areas of perinatal epidemiology, including a focus on twin children, rare genetic disorders, gestational weight gain, and insurance discontinuity in pregnancy. -
Karoline Marie Bornemann
Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiology
BioKaroline-Marie Bornemann, PhD, is a biomedical engineer interested in cardiovascular flows, specifically the computational modeling of heart valves using fluid-structure interaction simulations. Her current postdoctoral research in the Marsden lab at Stanford University focuses on the simulation of congenital heart diseases and their repair in pediatrics working with Alexander D. Kaiser, Alison Marsden and Michael Ma. She obtained her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Bern where she investigated instability mechanisms leading to laminar-turbulent transition past bioprosthetic aortic valves with Dominik Obrist and Peter Schmid. During her PhD, she performed a secondment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology collaborating with Ardeshir Hanifi and Dan Henningson assessing the stability of flow fields past valve prostheses. Visualizations of her PhD research were showcased in a winning entry of the Gallery of Fluid Motion 2024 and her PhD thesis won the GCB Best PhD Thesis 2024 Award.
-
Pauline Brochet
Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Informatics
BioPauline Brochet is a French scientist from Souraide, France. She completed her undergraduate studies in Molecular, Cellular and Physiological Biology (BSc, Université Clermont-Auvergne) and earned a Master's degree in Software Development and Data Analysis (MSc, Aix-Marseille Université). Pauline pursued a PhD at TAGC (Theories and Approaches for Genomic Complexity) in Marseille, France.
Under the supervision of Dr. Christophe Chevillard and Dr. Lionel Spinelli, Pauline integrated multi-omics data from human heart tissue to investigate the pathogenic processes associated with Chagas Disease Cardiomyopathy (CCC). Notably, she contributed to the development of ChagasDB, the first database associating key features with the different stages of Chagas disease. Her research identified the involvement of mitochondrial DNA mutations, non-coding RNA, transcription factors, and DNA methylation in various pathogenic processes, all leading to the progression of CCC.
Currently, at Stanford University, under the guidance of Dr. Matthew Wheeler and Dr. Daniel Katz, Pauline is conducting postdoctoral research on multi-omics data analysis as part of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC). Her work focuses on identifying key covariable features associated with physical exercise, with the ultimate goal of discovering exercise-mimetic drugs that could help prevent heart diseases. -
Adriel Brown
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioDr. Adriel Brown is a clinical neuroscientist and postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine where he employs electroencephalographic (EEG) methods to investigate the effects of creative arts therapies (e.g., art, dance/movement, drama, music, and poetry therapies) and mind-body practices, including mindfulness, meditation, spirituality, and yoga, on neurocognitive processes in individuals with psychiatric disorders.
At Teachers College, Columbia University, Dr. Brown completed his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science in Education (Area of Focus: Creativity and Cognition) and his M.S. in Neuroscience and Education (Award of Completion: Spirituality Mind Body). He is a former professional dancer and he completed his M.A. in Teaching Dance in Higher Education and the Professions (Concentration: Ballet Pedagogy) from New York University and his B.F.A. in Ballet (Minor: Arts Administration) from Texas Christian University. He is a Certified Teacher of the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum.
In addition to his appointment at Stanford University, Dr. Brown is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he teaches Social and Affective Neuroscience and Neuroscience, Ethics, and the Law. Previously, he was an instructor in the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he taught Introduction to Neuroscience: Understanding the Brain and The Neuroscience of Psychiatric Disorders. -
Kate Bubar
Postdoctoral Scholar, Infectious Diseases
BioKate is a postdoc in the Lo Lab. With a background in applied mathematics, statistics, and infectious disease epidemiology, she is passionate about using data-driven models to better understand infectious disease dynamics with the ultimate goal of informing public health policies and reducing disease burden.
-
Linnea Burke
Postdoctoral Scholar, General Surgery
BioLinnea Burke is a general surgery resident at Loma Linda University Health and a research fellow in the Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery at Stanford University. Her research interests include minimally invasive and bariatric surgery, healthcare disparities and implications on clinical outcomes, health services and policy, quality improvement, and the application of AI to improve surgical care.
-
Yuheng (Rene) Cai
Postdoctoral Scholar, Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery
BioDr. Yuheng Cai graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering in Shanghai, China. She then received a master’s degree in Biomedical Research from Imperial College London in London, UK, with a concentration in Data Science. She received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
-
Pere Canals
Postdoctoral Scholar, Radiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI have deep interest in studying how to leverage state-of-the-art AI advancements in the field of computer vision to develop applications with a practical use in day-to-day workflows in stroke treatment and other neurovascular diseases. For example, I want to study how we can use foundation models in 3D imaging to unlock novel applications with a real impact on stroke care. My main expertise has resided in understanding how complex vascular anatomies impact endovascular treatment in stroke.
-
Matteo Cartura
Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine
BioMatteo Cartura is a postdoctoral researcher in cardiovascular science, focusing on the clinical association between genetic variants identified in GWAS studies and the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis. He obtained his PhD at the Institute for Vascular Signalling, with a research focus on the immunological functions of endothelial cells in atherosclerosis. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biology and Biotechnology.
-
Austen Brooks Casey
Postdoctoral Scholar, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
BioAusten Brooks Casey, PhD, is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine (advisor: Boris Dov Heifets, MD, PhD). He originates from western North Carolina, and has had a long-standing interest in psychiatric drug discovery, which was invigorated by initial coursework in organic chemistry and biochemistry. Austen trained at Northeastern University (advisor: Raymond G. Booth, PhD) where he studied the medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology of novel ligands targeting serotonergic G protein-coupled receptors. As a postdoc, he is investigating the the precise cell-type(s) and circuitry engaged by MDMA that evoke social approach and fear extinction retention in mice. His long-term goal is to perform circuit-based drug discovery targeting neural circuits underlying the symptoms and treatment of psychiatric disorders.
-
Carlos Castillo Passi
Postdoctoral Scholar, Radiological Sciences Laboratory
BioCarlos Castillo-Passi began his academic journey at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC), where he earned both a degree and an MSc in Electrical Engineering in 2018. He then pursued a PhD in Biological and Medical Engineering through a joint program between PUC and King’s College London (KCL), completing it with maximum distinction in 2024. His research focused on the design of low-field cardiac MRI sequences using open-source MRI simulations. In 2023, his work on open-source MRI simulations was highlighted by the editor of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (MRM). Furthermore, his application of this work to low-field cardiac MRI earned him the Early Career Award in Basic Science from the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) in 2024. In addition to his research, Carlos is an active member of JuliaHealth, contributing to the development of high-performance, reproducible tools for health and medicine. In 2025, he joined Stanford University as a postdoctoral researcher, where he continues his work in cardiac MRI and open-source technologies.
-
Katie Cederberg
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioDr. Cederberg is a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University in the Mignot Lab, where she devotes her time to conducting research leveraging large datasets and machine learning approaches aimed at better understanding the relationship among genetics, proteomics and the presence and severity of symptoms related to sleep disorders. Her research further focuses on studying the effectiveness of exercise for managing symptoms of sleep disorders, primarily restless legs syndrome (RLS) and co-occurring conditions (e.g., periodic limb movements and insomnia). Her current research explores patients’ experiences with exercise and RLS, as well as the relationship between exercise and proteomic biomarkers of RLS. She received her PhD in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and her dissertation used a series of methodological approaches to comprehensively examine the relationship between physical activity and RLS in adults who have multiple sclerosis. She is using her experience and training to develop a line of research for identifying the mechanism of action for the effect of exercise and informing exercise prescription parameters for managing symptoms of RLS.
-
Bettia Edith Celestin
Postdoctoral Scholar, Pathology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on advanced echocardiographic imaging of the right heart and pulmonary circulation, with a strong emphasis on integrating artificial intelligence and deep learning into clinical cardiology. I led cardiovascular phenotyping for NIH-funded immune aging cohort and am developing a research program in women's cardiovascular health, including sex-specific imaging phenotypes and the cardiovascular consequences of adverse pregnancy outcomes across the menopausal transition.
-
Jonas Cerneckis
Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Institute
BioI am a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute working at the intersection of cardiovascular biology, neuroscience, and regenerative medicine. My research focuses on developing and applying new approach methodologies (NAMs), including human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived models, organoids, and computational approaches, to investigate disease mechanisms and identify opportunities for therapeutic development. I completed my PhD at the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at City of Hope, where I studied Alzheimer’s disease using human stem cell-based models and machine learning.
-
Antara Chakravarty
Postdoctoral Scholar, Microbiology and Immunology
BioAntara Chakravarty is a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Priscilla Yang at Stanford Medicine, where she develops small-molecule-based targeted protein degradation strategies against viral proteins. Her work focuses on understanding how viral proteins interface with host cellular pathways, including mechanisms that influence antiviral signaling responses. She is also interested in virus-induced remodeling of host membrane lipids and studies these processes using the hepatitis C virus replicase complex as a model system.
Antara received her doctoral training in molecular virology in the laboratory of Dr. A. L. N. Rao at the University of California, Riverside, where she discovered key roles for viral capsid dynamics in the pathogenicity and infectivity of multipartite bromoviruses. Her emerging research interests focus on developing chemically controllable tools to investigate host immune signaling pathways. -
Xi Ying Amanda Chen
Postdoctoral Scholar, Stem Cell Transplantation
BioDr. Chen completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) at the University of Sydney (NSW, Australia), with majors in Molecular Biology and Immunobiology. She graduated with the University Medal for her Honours research project where she investigated the novel role of DNA damage repair machinery on telomerase recruitment to telomeres. She then undertook her graduate studies at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (The University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia) in the Beavis laboratory, where she developed a CRISPR knock-in strategy to engineer armored CAR T cells to express therapeutic payloads in a tumor-restricted manner. She joined the Porteus laboratory in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University in March 2025, where she is developing strategies to enhance gene-edited hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
-
Sijie Chen
Postdoctoral Scholar, Radiation Physics
BioI am a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Lei Xing at Stanford University, where I develop trustworthy autonomous AI agents and foundational informatics systems for single-cell biology. My long-term vision is to build auditable computational infrastructure and virtual cell models that transform massive single-cell atlases into reliable, steerable systems for mechanistic discovery across tissues, diseases, and species. My doctoral work with Prof. Xuegong Zhang established my foundation in single-cell bioinformatics and atlas-scale integration, which I have since extended into large-scale representation modeling, AI agent workflows, and LLM-driven scientific discovery. My current work focuses on developing governed, agentic lifecycles for continuous single-cell data curation and foundation model evaluation, while applying these autonomous systems to power cross-organ virtual cell retrieval and simulate immune-tolerance breakdown.
My ongoing efforts build directly upon my prior work in atlas integration and algorithmic development. As the first author of hECA (Chen et al., 2022), I built a unified human cell atlas integrating one million high-quality cells across 38 organs with a logic-expression query interface. This experience exposed the central bottlenecks—such as heterogeneous formats and ontology grounding—that I now address using LLM-powered agents to enable autonomous metadata harmonization and iterative quality control. I am converting manual curation into an autonomous, agent-driven paradigm where new datasets are continuously ingested and versioned in a traceable manner. Furthermore, my co-development of TorchGW for cell state alignment, TFcomb for perturbation prediction, and TransMap for cross-species alignment provides the algorithmic foundation for next-generation cell foundation models and virtual cell simulation.
By integrating these components into trustworthy, benchmarked, and human-in-the-loop AI infrastructure, my research bridges scalable scientific computing with complex biomedical questions. Through close collaboration with Prof. Edgar Engleman, I am utilizing immune-tolerance breakdown—specifically focusing on a tolerogenic dendritic cell program—as a mechanistic testbed to validate our virtual cell simulations. A core focus of my work is ensuring that every agent-generated hypothesis and retrieved state remains bound to the exact data and model checkpoints that produced it, making findings fully re-derivable as the biological knowledge base evolves. Ultimately, I aim to advance the frontier of trustworthy autonomous single-cell informatics, bridging AI agents, virtual cell engineering, and biological discovery. -
Siyu Chen
Postdoctoral Scholar, Ophthalmology
BioMy research focuses on the development and optimization of CRISPR gene editing tools. iPSC modeling and developing gene therapies for Lowe Syndrome and Glaucoma.
-
Tianqi Chen
Postdoctoral Scholar, Oncology
BioMy research interest lies in liquid biopsy and early cancer diagnostics, e.g. development of bioassay for detection of cancer biomarkers (proteins and genes) and single-cell research. As well as the integration of 3D-printed microfluidics.
-
Xiangjun Chen
Postdoctoral Scholar, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
BioDr. Xiangjun Chen is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University. He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science from UC San Diego, where he also completed a postdoctoral training prior to joining Stanford. His work focuses on engineering soft wearable systems for healthcare monitoring, AI-driven human-machine interfaces, and advanced actuators and sensors for soft robotics.
-
Yiyun Chen
Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford Cancer Institute
BioYiyun Chen is a computational cancer immunologist whose interdisciplinary training spans structural biology, computational genomics, and cancer immunotherapy. During her doctoral training at HKUST, she developed multi-omic frameworks to decode the molecular landscape of brain tumors, gastric cancer, and B cell lymphoma — including the discovery of a tumor-associated monocyte population in the glioma microenvironment that drives mesenchymal transformation through the FOSL2-EREG/AREG-EGFR signaling axis.
As a postdoctoral fellow in the Crystal Mackall Laboratory at Stanford Cancer Institute, she extended this focus to the co-evolution of glioma and the immune system during CAR T cell therapy, uncovering multiple mechanisms of acquired resistance: anti-CAR humoral and cellular immunity, proinflammatory-to-immunosuppressive phenotypic shifts in macrophages, and tumor antigen escape. Her future research program will build an AI-powered platform that integrates longitudinal single-cell and spatial transcriptomics to model tumor-immune co-evolution in silico — constructing patient-level digital twins that simulate treatment trajectories, predict resistance, and identify real-time monitoring biomarkers.
