School of Medicine
Showing 11-20 of 60 Results
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Karen J. Parker, PhD
Truong-Tan Broadcom Endowed Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Comparative Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Parker Lab conducts research on the biology of social functioning in monkeys, typically developing humans, and patients with social impairments.
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Julie Parsonnet
George DeForest Barnett Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health
On Partial Leave from 01/06/2025 To 10/14/2025Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am an infectious diseases epidemiologist who has done large field studies in both the US and developing countries. We research the long-term consequences of chronic interactions between the human host and the microbial world. My lab has done fundamental work establishing the role of H. pylori in causing disease and understanding its epidemiology. Currently, our research dissects how and when children first encounter microbes and the long term effects of these exposures on health.
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Sonia Partap
Clinical Professor, Neurology
Clinical Professor (By courtesy), Neurosurgery
Clinical Professor, PediatricsCurrent Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests involve the epidemiology, treatment and diagnosis of pediatric and young adult brain tumors. I am also interested in long-term neurologic effects and designing clinical trials to treat brain and spinal cord tumors.
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Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences (Adult Neurology) and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
BioDr. Parvizi completed his medical internship at Mayo Clinic, neurology training at Harvard, and subspecialty training in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy at UCLA before joining the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford in 2007. Dr. Parvizi directs the Stanford Program for Medication Resistant Epilepsies and specializes in surgical treatments of intractable focal epilepsies. Dr. Parvizi is the principal investigator in the Laboratory of Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, where he leads a team of investigators to study the human brain. http://med.stanford.edu/parvizi-lab.html.
Epilepsy patient story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXy-gXg0t94&t=3s -
Anca M. Pasca, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe research focus of the lab is to understand molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders associated with premature birth, neonatal and fetal brain injury with the long-term goal of translating the lab’s findings into therapeutics. The research team employs a multidisciplinary approach involving genetics, molecular and developmental neurobiology, animal models and neural cells differentiated from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. In particular, the lab is using a powerful 3D human brain-region specific organoid system developed at Stanford (Nature Methods, 2015; Nature Protocols, 2018) to ask questions about brain injury during development.
https://www.neopascalab.org/ -
Sergiu P. Pasca
Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Bonnie Uytengsu and Family Director of the Stanford Brain Organogenesis Program
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsA critical challenge in understanding the intricate programs underlying development, assembly and dysfunction of the human brain is the lack of direct access to intact, functioning human brain tissue for detailed investigation by imaging, recording, and stimulation.
To address this, we are developing bottom-up approaches to generate and assemble, from multi-cellular components, human neural circuits in vitro and in vivo.
We introduced the use of instructive signals for deriving from human pluripotent stem cells self-organizing 3D cellular structures named brain region-specific spheroids/organoids. We demonstrated that these cultures, such as the ones resembling the cerebral cortex, can be reliably derived across many lines and experiments, contain synaptically connected neurons and non-reactive astrocytes, and can be used to gain mechanistic insights into genetic and environmental brain disorders. Moreover, when maintained as long-term cultures, they recapitulate an intrinsic program of maturation that progresses towards postnatal stages.
We also pioneered a modular system to integrate 3D brain region-specific organoids and study human neuronal migration and neural circuit formation in functional preparations that we named assembloids. We have actively applied these models in combination with studies in long-term ex vivo brain preparations to acquire a deeper understanding of human physiology, evolution and disease mechanisms.
We have carved a unique research program that combines rigorous in vivo and in vitro neuroscience, stem cell and molecular biology approaches to construct and deconstruct previously inaccessible stages of human brain development and function in health and disease.
We believe science is a community effort, and accordingly, we have been advancing the field by broadly and openly sharing our technologies with numerous laboratories around the world and organizing the primary research conference and the training courses in the area of cellular models of the human brain. -
Anisha I Patel
Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Patel is a physician-scientist with a focus on community-engaged research (CEnR). She works to translate evidence to impact policies that can benefit children facing inequities due to their racial/ethnic background, poverty, and/or geography.
She leads the independently-funded research program, Partnerships for Research in Child Health, which collaborates with community partners to co-develop, implement, and evaluate innovative interventions aimed at preventing obesity and cardiometabolic diseases in low-income, minoritized populations. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Patel has led numerous studies to encourage healthy beverage intake among children and adolescents. These studies include analyses of large national data sets, conduct of randomized controlled trials in schools, child care, and community settings to examine how interventions to increase children’s intake of water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages impact child health, and the evaluation of policy efforts to improve the healthfulness of beverages offered in schools and community settings.
Long before the Flint water crisis, Dr. Patel was working with partners to address nitrate and arsenic contamination in drinking water supplies in California’s San Joaquin Valley, a rural region home to many low-income Latinx farm-working families. She secured funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to collaborate with researchers, nonprofits, water utilities, families, and advocates to develop innovative solutions to drinking water contamination in the region, helping to lead to the Agua4All program. The Agua4All initiative increased access to safe drinking water by installing filtered water stations in schools and community sites. The program’s success led to its national expansion and informed a $16.3 million-dollar water in schools grant program as well as California legislation to improve safe water access in public schools. Dr. Patel’s work with collaborators and communities was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Drink Up campaign and featured in Stanford Medicine’s award-winning magazine.
As an expert in CEnR, Dr. Patel leads initiatives at Stanford. She is Director of the Office of Community-Engaged Research at Stanford's Maternal and Child Health Research Institute. In this role, she is helping to lead several initiatives, including expanding grant funding for CEnR and implementing capacity-building training programs for both community partners and the Stanford community. She also serves as Associate Dean of Research in Stanford’s School of Medicine, where she works to enhance community engagement across the university. Dr. Patel is a Co-Investigator on Stanford’s Clinical Translational Sciences Award. She also helps lead mentoring of fellows and junior faculty in CEnR.
Dr. Patel has a diverse funding portfolio ranging from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research Program, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Patel has presented her research to local, national and international audiences. She has also been recognized for her research with awards from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Public Health. -
Lisa Patel
Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics
BioLisa Patel received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. After college, she worked in Egypt, Brazil, and India on international development projects with community-based organizations and non-profits, focusing on conservation and development efforts. She then obtained her Master's in Environmental Sciences from the Yale School of the Environment and went on to be a Presidential Management Fellow for the Environmental Protection Agency, coordinating the US Government's efforts on clean air and safe drinking water projects in South Asia in collaboration with the World Health Organization for which she was awarded the Trudy A. Specinar Award.
Realizing the critical and inextricable links between children's health and environmental issues, she obtained her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and completed her residency in pediatrics at UCSF. For the last several years, she has used her extensive experience working for government, community organizations, and non-profits to advocate for children's health priorities in the US. She is previously the co-chair for the American Academy of Pediatrics Advocacy Committee, California Chapter 1 (AAP-CA1) and in her time helped launch the inaugural Advocating for Children Together conference for Northern California that became a yearly occurrence. She co-founded the Climate and Health Committee for AAP-CA1, and is a member of the Executive Committee for the AAP's national Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change. In these roles, she has co-led successfully introducing board certification materials on climate change into the American Board of Pediatrics, and written policy statements and book chapers for the AAP on plant-forward diets and climate-smart schools. She is formerly the rotation director for the pediatric resident's Community Pediatrics and Child Advocacy Rotation. Her extensive work in local advocacy was recognized by Stanford Children’s Health Advocacy Award in 2023.
She is currently the Executive Director for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and maintains a clinical practice as a pediatric hospitalist caring for newborns, premature infants, and children requiring hospitalization. She serves on several boards and commissions, including Our Children's Trust, the legal organization that represented youth in Held v. Montana, Undaunted K12 whose mission is to facilitate climate-smart schools throughout the country, and the National Commission on Climate and Workforce Health which empowers businesses to protect their workers from mounting threats to their health from climate change. She is frequently asked to advise and review on topics including sustainable healthcare, early childhood development and climate, vegetarian and plant-forward diets, and communicating climate change as a health threat.
Communications remains a central part of her work, and she serves as a Science Mom to talk to other parents and caretakers about the health harms of climate change. Her work has also appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the New York Times, the LA Times, Bloomberg News, and multiple state and local outlets. She is interviewed regularly for her expertise on climate, health, and equity for major national media outlets like the Washington Post, US News and World Report, and CNN, among others.
