School of Medicine
Showing 41-50 of 116 Results
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Daniel Herschlag
Professor of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research is aimed at understanding the chemical and physical behavior underlying biological macromolecules and systems, as these behaviors define the capabilities and limitations of biology. Toward this end we study folding and catalysis by RNA, as well as catalysis by protein enzymes.
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Chaitanya K. Joshi
Postdoctoral Scholar, Biochemistry
BioI'm a Stanford Data Science Fellow and Postdoc at the Department of Biochemistry, working with Prof. Rhiju Das. I'm building lab-in-the-loop AI for RNA biology, bridging deep learning and high-throughput wet lab experiments at scale.
Previously, I completed my PhD in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge with Prof. Pietro Liò. My doctoral work focused on Geometric Deep Learning for molecular modelling and design. As a highlight, I developed gRNAde, an inverse design framework that we used to design and experimentally validate new functional RNA enzymes in collaboration with Dr. Phil Holliger's group at MRC LMB. My research has been recognized by the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship and the A*STAR National Science Scholarship. I've also been a research scientist intern at Prescient Design (Genentech) and FAIR Chemistry (Meta AI) during my PhD. -
Sharada Kalanidhi
Director of Data Science, Biochemistry - Genome Center
Current Role at StanfordParaphrasing the mathematician Alexander Grothendieck: the essential thing is to pose problems in the right framework.
Sharada is developing a new field, Mathematical Medicine, which applies pure mathematical frameworks to genomic and multi-omic data for quantitative, personalized diagnosis. This approach explores alternatives to prevailing cohort-based statistical paradigms, particularly in complex clinical cases that have resisted standard methods.
After more than a decade of research and close collaboration with biochemists at the Stanford Genome Technology Center (Dept. of Biochemistry), Sharada concluded that the mathematics currently used for multi-omic diagnosis is inadequate for the level of biological and clinical complexity being attempted. Her conclusion echoes the perspective of the mathematician Mikhail Gromov: “This area does not yet exist. It will have to be invented.” Mathematical Medicine represents one possible construction of such an area.
This field is focused on the development of an intermediate translation layer between cohort-based statistical models and individualized multi-omic diagnosis and clinical decision-making. Without this mathematical layer, the clinical adoption of multi-omic data- particularly for complex cases- has been limited. As a result, many complex, multi-system conditions remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for long periods, delaying effective treatment and, in some cases, allowing disease processes to worsen. Additionally, what is learned from rare and extreme cases proves highly informative for the rest of the population.
Further information on this field, including opportunities for early philanthropic partnerships, is available at: https://mathmed-2026.web.app/ -
Preston Kellenberger
Ph.D. Student in Biochemistry, admitted Autumn 2025
BioI was raised in Saint Louis County, MO and completed my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at The University of Missouri – Columbia. I’m most excited by translational problems that can be addressed through the structural understanding and engineering of biological molecules. At Stanford, I look forward to joining a collaborative community that spans broad scientific disciplines, and to contributing to research that advances human health. I love spending my extra time playing the drums, and I have served as a snare drummer for the world-class Madison Scouts and Cavaliers drum corps.
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Chaitan Khosla
Wells H. Rauser and Harold M. Petiprin Professor and Professor of Chemistry and, by courtesy, of Biochemistry
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch in this laboratory focuses on problems where deep insights into enzymology and metabolism can be harnessed to improve human health.
For the past two decades, we have studied and engineered enzymatic assembly lines called polyketide synthases that catalyze the biosynthesis of structurally complex and medicinally fascinating antibiotics in bacteria. An example of such an assembly line is found in the erythromycin biosynthetic pathway. Our current focus is on understanding the structure and mechanism of this polyketide synthase. At the same time, we are developing methods to decode the vast and growing number of orphan polyketide assembly lines in the sequence databases.
For more than a decade, we have also investigated the pathogenesis of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine, with the goal of discovering therapies and related management tools for this widespread but overlooked disease. Ongoing efforts focus on understanding the pivotal role of transglutaminase 2 in triggering the inflammatory response to dietary gluten in the celiac intestine.
