School of Medicine
Showing 21-32 of 32 Results
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Stephen Smith, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsRESEARCH OVERVIEW
Dr. Smith’s primary professional interest is developing solutions for unmet clinical and surgical vitreoretinal needs. Beginning in medical school, one of his primary focuses has been improving treatment outcomes in patients with retinoblastoma (RB). During his second year in medical school Dr. Smith published a manuscript on a novel technique to reduce the risk of tumor spread following intravitreal drug delivery in patients with RB. His work summarizing published data on tumor spread following intravitreal injection therapy (IVT) for RB has resulted in multiple platform presentations at national and international meetings, including an invited lecture at ARVO 2014. The results of this study influenced the growing trend toward broader acceptance of intravitreal chemotherapy in pediatric patients with treatment-resistant retinoblastoma vitreous seeds. A primary active area of research has included studying and publishing on ocular toxicity that results from the use of intravitreal melphalan and other agents for RB. This work, and subsequent publications from leaders in the field, has led to an increased awareness of ocular toxicity caused by injecting chemotherapeutic agents into the eyes of young children. This highlighted the need for toxicity data on additional chemotherapeutic agents for local delivery. To answer this question, Dr. Smith assembled an excellent group of collaborators and consultants, including internationally known experts at Bascom Palmer, Mayo Clinic, and Emory University. As a resident he secured a highly competitive career starter grant from the Knights Templar Foundation and used that funding and the expertise of his collaborators to carry out preclinical ocular toxicity studies of combination intravitreal chemotherapy for RB. His work in RB has led to a broader recognition of the challenges facing patients with RB who receive IVT and has led to a continued search for optimal local injectable therapies for patients with this disease.
INNOVATION HIGHLIGHTS
In addition to his work in retinoblastoma, Dr. Smith has been actively involved in developing technologies to improve outcomes for patients receiving intravitreal injection therapy (IVT) for macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusions and more. IVT has become the most common procedure performed by retina specialists in the United States, with an estimated 6 million injections given in the United States alone in 2016. Dr. Smith has co-developed technology that simplifies and streamlines the IVT process, removing barriers to treatment and improving patient outcomes. His work in innovation covers pre-clinical and clinical development work, and has given him expertise in diverse subject areas including fundraising, intellectual property portfolio development, team building, and business administration. He is a co-founder of iRenix Medical, a biotechnology and medical device start-up company committed to improving vision through optimization of the IVT process.
Dr. Smith remains dedicated to helping improve and restore vision and quality of life in patients with vitreoretinal disease. He is currently involved in both medical device and pharmaceutical innovation, and serves as a mentor for the Stanford University Biodesign Innovation Course. -
Blake Marleau Snyder
Clinical Instructor, Ophthalmology
BioBlake Snyder, MD grew up in Colorado and brings his love of skiing, biking, hiking, and live music to a life and career focused on global ophthalmology. He studied biochemistry and chemistry at the University of Colorado, graduating summa cum laude as the only student in his department to do so, with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa honors. He then spent a year as an Intramural Research Training Award Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where he was first introduced to ophthalmology. During medical school, he was one of six students selected as an AOA Honor Society leader and received both the departmental award in ophthalmology at graduation and a full presidential scholarship. He spent two years completing international ophthalmology research as a Doris Duke/Fogarty Fellow with the Francis I. Proctor Foundation at UCSF, contributing to a project later supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He completed residency at UC Davis, where he served as Chief Resident and co-authored a policy paper that helped advance Congressional legislation on corneal donation access for minority populations. He returned to UCSF and the Proctor Foundation for fellowship training in uveitis and medical cornea and is now a Global Ophthalmology Fellow at Stanford.
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Brian Soetikno
Affiliate, Ophthalmology Clinic and Education
BioBrian Soetikno grew up in Union City, CA. He received his BS in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, where he studied biomedical optics under the mentorship of Lihong Wang, PhD. In the summer of 2013, he entered the Medical Scientist (MD/PhD) Training Program at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL. He completed a PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2018 under the combined mentorship of Amani Fawzi, MD and Hao Zhang, PhD, which focused on retinal imaging. Specifically, his dissertation described advances in functional optical coherence tomography (OCT), including retinal oximetry with visible-light OCT and OCT angiography. He graduated with his MD in 2020 and joined the Stanford Ophthalmology Advance Research (SOAR) residency. Brian aspires to ultimately pursue a career in academic ophthalmology, where he hopes to combine his passion for engineering, innovation, and ocular surgery.
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Gayathri Srinivasan OD, MS
Clinical Associate Professor, Ophthalmology
BioDr. Srinivasan is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. Her clinical focus is on the management of amblyopia, strabismus, childhood refractive errors, and concussion-related vision disorders in children and adults. Dr. Srinivasan's research interests are amblyopia, strabismus, and concussion-related vision disorders. She serves as co-Investigator in ongoing clinical trials through the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG), funded by the NIH, and chairs the Pediatrics and Strabismus subgroup within the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) network.
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Creed Stary
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine (MSD) and, by courtesy, of Ophthalmology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMechanisms promoting neuronal survival following cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury; utilizing microRNA's to target multiple pathways to promote mitochondrial homeostasis and cell survival; anesthetic neurotoxicity; astrocyte-neuronal interaction
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Laurel Stell
Temp - Non-Exempt, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
Current Role at StanfordAnalyzing Humphrey Visual Field data to assess how HVF might be used as a primary endpoint in clinical trials for glaucoma treatments. Work with Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg.
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Shih-Po Su
Postdoctoral Scholar, Ophthalmology
BioDr. Shih-Po Su is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan, in 2024. His doctoral research focused on the development of advanced optical imaging systems, including a three-dimensional near-infrared fluorescence and photoacoustic vascular imaging platform for preclinical applications.
Dr. Su has over a decade of experience in biomedical imaging, integrating optical system design, image analysis, and in vivo disease modeling. His research interests center on the interface of optical engineering and translational medicine, particularly in retinal ganglion cell (RGC) imaging and neuroprotective strategies for glaucoma. At Stanford, he is extending his expertise to short-wave infrared (SWIR/NIR-II) imaging and in vivo retinal functional imaging to establish sensitive biomarkers for neurodegeneration.
His recent work has advanced optical imaging and NIR-II contrast agents, including the co-development of polymer-dot probes for three-dimensional tumor and bone imaging (Chemical Science, 2022; Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2021) and an ultrabright polymer-dot platform for rotational stereo imaging (Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2024). He also designed integrated small-animal imaging systems combining bioluminescence tomography and ultrasound, as well as rotational stereo NIR-II fluorescence imaging (Optics Express, 2024; Journal of Biomedical Optics, 2023; Biosensors, 2022).
Dr. Su has received multiple international recognitions, including the Taiwan Science and Technology Hub@Stanford Postdoctoral Fellowship (2024), First Prize in the NYCU Annual Thesis Competition (2023), the Future Tech Award (MOST, 2022), and the MOST Pilot Scholarship Program (2019). His long-term goal is to develop regenerative medicine–based imaging and therapeutic platforms to address unmet clinical needs in neurodegenerative diseases and vision restoration. -
Yang Sun, MD, PhD
Professor of Ophthalmology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are interested in the role of inositol phosphatases in eye development and disease, using both animal models and human disease tissue. We are a translational laboratory seeking to understand the basic function of proteins as well as developing therapeutic strategies for clinical trials.
