Browse School of Medicine | Stanford Profiles

Melanie Hayden Gephart

Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

BioI am a brain tumor neurosurgeon, treating patients with malignant and benign tumors, including gliomas, brain metastases, meningiomas, and schwannomas. I direct the Stanford Brain Tumor Center and the Stanford Brain Metastasis Consortium, collaborative unions of physicians and scientists looking to improve our understanding and treatment of brain tumors. My laboratory seeks greater understanding of the mechanisms driving tumorigenesis and disease progression in malignant brain tumors. We study how rare cancer cell populations survive and migrate in the brain, inadvertently supported by native brain cells. We develop novel cerebrospinal fluid-based biomarkers to track brain cancer treatment response, relapse, and neurotoxicity. Our bedside-to-bench-to-bedside research model builds on a foundation of generously donated patient samples, where we test mechanisms of brain cancer growth, develop novel pre-clinical models that reliably recapitulate the human disease, and facilitate clinical trials of new treatments for patients with brain cancer.

www.GephartLab.com
www.GBMseq.org
https://stan.md/BrainMets
@HaydenGephartMD

Contact Info
Mail Code: 5327
mghayden@stanford.edu

Cellas Ari'ka Hayes

Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology

BioCellas is currently a postdoctoral fellow/Propel scholar at Stanford University in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences in a laboratory utilizing longitudinal data analysis and neuroimaging modalities to understand the aging brain, neuropathology, cognition, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Postdoctoral experience includes using R, Linux, and Python to perform data preprocessing, multivariate statistical analysis, and applying novel models for longitudinal continuous outcomes. Cellas received his Bachelor’s in Biology (2015-2019) and Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Sciences with an emphasis in Pharmacology (2019-2022) from the University of Mississippi. As a doctoral candidate, his research focused on using both in vitro and in vivo approaches to further elucidate how neuroendocrine modulation specifically insulin-like growth factor-1 alters learning and memory performance along with ischemic stroke outcomes. Skills gained during doctoral training included in vitro cell culture, pharmacological experimental design of both in vitro and in vivo studies, development of transgenic mouse models, a wide array of rodent behavioral paradigms, stereotaxic surgery, photothrombosis, and numerous ex vivo cellular, molecular, and microscopy techniques.
My primary interests lie at the intersection of aging, neurodegenerative disease, and using longitudinal epidemiological data sets to investigate hypotheses. All around neuroscientist seeking sci-comm, industry, and academic opportunities to strengthen skills to become an independent investigator.