School of Medicine


Showing 11-20 of 22 Results

  • James Ferrell

    James Ferrell

    Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab has two main goals: to understand the regulation of mitosis and to understand the systems-level logic of simple signaling circuits. We often make use of Xenopus laevis oocytes, eggs, and cell-free extracts for both sorts of study. We also carry out single-cell fluorescence imaging studies on mammalian cell lines. Our experimental work is complemented by computational and theoretical studies aimed at understanding the design principles and recurring themes of regulatory circuits.

  • Andrew Fire

    Andrew Fire

    George D. Smith Professor of Molecular and Genetic Medicine and Professor of Pathology and of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study natural cellular mechanisms for adapting to genetic change. These include systems activated during normal development and those for detecting and responding to foreign or unwanted genetic activity. Underlying these studies are questions of how a cells can distinguish information as "self" versus "nonself" or "wanted" versus "unwanted".

  • Michael Fischbach

    Michael Fischbach

    Liu (Liao) Family Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe microbiome carries out extraordinary feats of biology: it produces hundreds of molecules, many of which impact host physiology; modulates immune function potently and specifically; self-organizes biogeographically; and exhibits profound stability in the face of perturbations. Our lab studies the mechanisms of microbiome-host interactions. Our approach is based on two technologies we recently developed: a complex (119-member) defined gut community that serves as an analytically manageable but biologically relevant system for experimentation, and new genetic systems for common species from the microbiome. Using these systems, we investigate mechanisms at the community level and the strain level.

    1) Community-level mechanisms. A typical gut microbiome consists of 200-250 bacterial species that span >6 orders of magnitude in relative abundance. As a system, these bacteria carry out extraordinary feats of metabolite consumption and production, elicit a variety of specific immune cell populations, self-organize geographically and metabolically, and exhibit profound resilience against a wide range of perturbations. Yet remarkably little is known about how the community functions as a system. We are exploring this by asking two broad questions: How do groups of organisms work together to influence immune function? What are the mechanisms that govern metabolism and ecology at the 100+ strain scale? Our goal is to learn rules that will enable us to design communities that solve specific therapeutic problems.

    2) Strain-level mechanisms. Even though gut and skin colonists live in communities, individual strains can have an extraordinary impact on host biology. We focus on two broad (and partially overlapping) categories:

    Immune modulation: Can we redirect colonist-specific T cells against an antigen of interest by expressing it on the surface of a bacterium? How do skin colonists induce high levels of Staphylococcus-specific antibodies in mice and humans?

    Abundant microbiome-derived molecules: By constructing single-strain/single-gene knockouts in a complex defined community, we will ask: What are the effects of bacterially produced molecules on host metabolism and immunology? Can the molecular output of low-abundance organisms impact host physiology?

    3) Cell and gene therapy. We have begun two new efforts in mammalian cell and gene therapies. First, we are developing methods that enable cell-type specific delivery of genome editing payloads in vivo. We are especially interested in delivery vehicles that are customizable and easy to manufacture. Second, we have begun a comprehensive genome mining effort with an emphasis on understudied or entirely novel enzyme systems with utility in mammalian genome editing.

  • George A. Fisher Jr.

    George A. Fisher Jr.

    Colleen Haas Chair in the School of Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsClinical expertise in GI cancers with research which emphasizes Phase I and II clinical trials of novel therapies but also includes translational studies including biomarkers, molecular imaging, tumor immunology and development of immunotherapeutic trials.

  • Paul Graham Fisher, MD

    Paul Graham Fisher, MD

    Beirne Family Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Professor of Pediatrics and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery and of Epidemiology and Population Health

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsClinical neuro-oncology: My research explores the epidemiology, natural history, and disease patterns of brain tumors and other cancers in childhood, as well as prospective clinical trials for treating these neoplasms. Research interests also include neurologic effects of cancer and its therapies.

  • James Ford

    James Ford

    Professor of Medicine (Oncology) and of Genetics and, by courtesy, of Pediatrics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMammalian DNA repair and DNA damage inducible responses; p53 tumor suppressor gene; transcription in nucleotide excision repair and mutagenesis; genetic determinants of cancer cell sensitivity to DNA damage; genetics of inherited cancer susceptibility syndromes and human GI malignancies; clinical cancer genetics of BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer and mismatch repair deficient colon cancer.

  • Matthew Frank

    Matthew Frank

    Assistant Professor of Medicine (Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy)

    BioDr. Matthew Frank, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at Stanford University. Dr. Frank predominantly cares for patients with high-risk lymphoma and other blood cancers. He is a lead investigator of clinical trials evaluating the safety and effectiveness of cancer treatments called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR ) T therapy for patients with lymphomas and leukemias. Dr. Frank’s research focuses on developing methods to identify patients who are at high risk for relapse or developing side-effects after receiving CAR T therapy and to understand why these relapses and side-effects occur.

  • Hunter Fraser

    Hunter Fraser

    Professor of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the evolution of complex traits by developing new experimental and computational methods.

    Our work brings together quantitative genetics, genomics, epigenetics, and evolutionary biology to achieve a deeper understanding of how genetic variation shapes the phenotypic diversity of life. Our main focus is on the evolution of gene expression, which is the primary fuel for natural selection. Our long-term goal is to be able to introduce complex traits into new species via genome editing.

  • Richard Frock

    Richard Frock

    Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology (Radiation and Cancer Biology)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are a functional genomics laboratory interested in elucidating mechanisms of DNA repair pathway choice and genome instability. We employ a powerful discovery platform, High-Throughput Genome-wide Translocation Sequencing (HTGTS), which maps DNA junctions at single nucleotide resolution. Our expertise overlaps many different fields including: genome editing, ionizing radiation and cancer therapeutics, V(D)J and IgH class switch recombination, and meiosis.