School of Medicine
Showing 121-130 of 228 Results
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Lili Liu
Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology
BioLili (Larry) Liu, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University. Dr. Liu is an integrative epidemiologist whose research is unified by a consistent methodological approach rather than a single disease area. Across his master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral training, he has repeatedly developed or operationalized epidemiologic frameworks and analytic programs and applied them to important public health questions spanning rare diseases, chronic disease, cancer, mortality, microbiome, and women’s health. His work brings together molecular biomarkers, large-scale population cohorts, and real-world health data to generate coherent, hypothesis-driven research on how genetic variation, lifestyle, pharmacologic factors, and early-life exposures shape inflammation, biological aging, and chronic disease risk across the life course.
During his master’s training at Peking University, Dr. Liu developed expertise in literature synthesis, national claims-based study, rare disease burden estimation, patient-centered health information research, cohort-based analysis, and vaccine effectiveness evaluation. He helped build and apply claims-based analytic algorithms to estimate incidence and prevalence for multiple rare diseases in China, led first-author studies on online health information and patient information needs in rare disease populations, and established an analytic framework for CHARLS-based cohort studies that supported multiple downstream projects. During his PhD training at Vanderbilt University, he expanded into population genetics, molecular and cancer epidemiology, mortality and health disparities research, gut microbiome, and pooled multi-study analyses. His doctoral work included a multi-ancestry GWAS of urinary prostaglandin E2 metabolite (PGE-M), development of PGE-M-derived dietary and lifestyle scores, and Mendelian randomization analyses linking lipid-related pathways to colorectal cancer risk. He also led several first-author studies in the Southern Community Cohort Study on poverty, sitting time, physical activity, walking and mortality, and alcohol intake and the gut microbiome, several of which received substantial public health and media attention.
At Stanford, Dr. Liu has developed an independent research program centered on women’s health and life-course epidemiology using U.S. national claims data. He has built large nationwide pregnancy and mother-baby cohorts from MarketScan to study adverse obstetric outcomes, long-term cardiometabolic and hepatic outcomes, and early-onset cancer risk. His first corresponding-author paper at Stanford examined gestational diabetes in relation to subsequent type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, and his ongoing work extends this framework to cardiovascular, kidney, metabolic, and reproductive health outcomes, including PCOS and endometriosis. He also received a Stanford MCHRI fellowship grant to study prenatal and early-life antibiotic exposure in relation to pediatric inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease. In parallel, his collaborative work includes placental and maternal-fetal research on extracellular vesicles and angiogenic signaling.
Methodologically, Dr. Liu works at the interface of causal inference, pharmacoepidemiology, molecular epidemiology, and scalable real-world data science, using reproducible analytic pipelines in R, Python, SQL, and high-performance computing environments. Across all stages of his training, the central theme of his work has been to build scalable analytic infrastructure and apply it to high-impact epidemiologic questions with broad public health relevance, with the overarching goal of translating rigorous population science into actionable strategies for chronic disease prevention in diverse populations. -
Nathan Lo
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research group is interested in studying the transmission of infectious diseases and impact of public health interventions with an ultimate goal of informing public health policy. We study a diverse set of pathogens, both domestically and internationally, including vaccine-preventable infections (including COVID-19) and neglected parasitic diseases (such as schistosomiasis). Our group applies diverse computational methodologies, including tools from fields of epidemiology, mathematical and statistical modeling, simulation, and policy analysis.
A large emphasis of our work is translating scientific evidence into public health policy. Our track record includes multiple studies that have changed policy in the fields of neglected parasitic diseases and COVID-19. We work closely with policy organizations like the World Health Organization and the California Department of Public Health. Nathan was the lead writer of the World Health Organization guidelines on schistosomiasis (2022) and strongyloidiasis (2024).
Our current research focuses on the following areas:
(1) Vaccine-preventable infectious diseases (including COVID-19 and measles) in the United States, with a focus on studying vaccines, transmission dynamics, and re-emergence of vaccine-eliminated diseases
(2) Public health strategies for control and elimination of globally important neglected infectious diseases, such as helminths infections (schistosomiasis, strongyloidiasis) and typhoid fever
Our current NIH funded projects include:
(1) Real-time predictive modeling for public health departments to control infectious diseases (DP2 AI170485, PI: Lo)
(2) Precision mapping of Schistosoma mansoni risk for targeted public health control and elimination (R01 AI179771, PI: Lo)
Hiring
We are seeking to fill multiple research positions at all levels. Candidates interested in working on computational public health research related to infectious diseases with a strong quantitative background are highly encouraged to apply. If you an interested, please submit a cover letter, CV, and names of two references to Nathan.Lo@stanford.edu. -
Junjie Lu
Ph.D. Student in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, admitted Autumn 2023
BioJunjie's research is centered on the social determinants of minority health, epidemiological methods, and clinical effectiveness. He is deeply committed to understanding the health disparities faced by minority populations. His clinical background helps bridge the gap between research and practical application, aiming to improve healthcare outcomes in real-world settings.
Junjie Lu earned a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he concentrated on Health and Social Behavior. He also holds an MBBS and an MS from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Junjie gained practical experience as an intern doctor at a university hospital for two years, during which he led a pilot randomized controlled trial on the effects of acupuncture on depressive symptoms. -
Ying Lu
Professor of Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBiostatistics, clinical trials, statistical evaluation of medical diagnostic tests, radiology, osteoporosis, meta-analysis, medical decision making
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Stephen Luby
Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Professor, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Luby’s research interests include identifying and interrupting environmental pathways of disease in low- and middle-income countries.
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Mitchell R. Lunn
Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLGBTQIA+ health
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David Maahs
Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics and Professor, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
BioDr David M. Maahs is the Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics, Division Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology, and Associate Chair for Academic Affairs in Pediatrics at Stanford University and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. He earned his MD followed by Pediatric Residency at the University of New Mexico. After 3 years on New Mexico’s faculty, Dr. Maahs completed a Pediatric Endocrinology fellowship and a concurrent PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Colorado. He remained on Colorado’s faculty for 10 years, advancing to Professor of Pediatrics before moving to Stanford. Prior to his medical career, Dr. Maahs received a BA and MA in English from the University of Kansas and was inspired to pursue a medical career after serving in the Peace Corps with assignments in Tunisia and the Central African Republic.
Dr. Maahs’ leadership experiences include being a past co-Chair (2013-16) for Protocols and Publications with the Type 1 Diabetes Exchange for which he continues as Director of International Collaborations. This complements his role as President-elect for the International Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD, 2021-25) and Editor-in-Chief for the 2018 ISPAD Clinical Practice Consensus Guidelines. He served on the Professional Practice Committee for the American Diabetes Association (ADA, 2016-18), which writes the annual ADA Standards of Care. Previously, he served on the ADA Scientific Sessions committee representing the Council on Youth. He has also served on national committees for the American Heart Association, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, and multiple journal editorial boards and review committees.
His scholarly interest is improving care and preventing complications in people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Along with Dr Peter Chase, he is author of the 12th and 13th editions of Understanding Diabetes, or ‘Pink Panther,’ which are the most widely used educational books for children newly diagnosed with T1D, distributed internationally by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF). More specifically, he has conducted epidemiologic studies that help generate hypotheses for clinical studies, including trials to develop artificial pancreas systems to improve glucose control, lower disease burden, prevent the complications of diabetes, and reduce disparities in diabetes care. He is author or co-author of over 350 research publications. His multi-disciplinary research has been funded by the JDRF, the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Dr Maahs is Associate Director for the recently formed and NIDDK P30 funded Stanford University Diabetes Research Center (https://sdrc.stanford.edu). His collaborations extend to his role as Principal Investigator (PI) or steering committee member for NIH funded multi-center clinical trials including the FLEX, PERL, and ACTION studies as well as multiple Artificial Pancreas clinical trials. Education, mentorship, and training leadership includes being Program Director with Dr. Georgeanna Klingensmith on the Barbara Davis Center T32 and K12 training grants in Pediatric Endocrinology while at the University of Colorado. He is the PI on the Stanford NIH funded K12 "Training Research Leaders in Type 1 Diabetes.' Dr Maahs is also the Associate Chair for Academic Affairs for the Department of Pediatrics.
While in the Peace Corps, David met his wife, Christine Walravens, who is also a Pediatrician at Stanford. They enjoy outdoor activities and traveling with their adult children.
