School of Medicine


Showing 1-15 of 15 Results

  • Stephanie Balters

    Stephanie Balters

    Instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences

    BioDr. Stephanie Balters is an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the director of the Empowerment Neuroscience Laboratory and studies how social factors such as interpersonal trauma and cultural biases impact brain function and mental health outcomes. Dr. Balters develops evidence-based interventions to improve well-being, work productivity, and team performance. She is passionate about embracing authenticity, vulnerability, and individual differences, and leveraging adverse experiences towards self-growth and achieving one’s full potential. Dr. Balters holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering and has earned a Ph.D. in Engineering Design. Her diverse career journey includes experiences at the Center for Design Research and Computer Science at Stanford University before transitioning to the School of Medicine. Dr. Balters is a Human Factors Specialist at NATO and facilitates Empowerment Workshops at Stanford University.

  • Jennifer L. Bruno

    Jennifer L. Bruno

    Instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Bruno is a translational researcher at the interface of developmental cognitive neuropsychology and neurobiology. An overarching goal of her work is to understand developmental windows of vulnerability—periods of risk for falling off the trajectory of typical brain development. Her research utilizes genetics, brain imaging, and deep behavioral phenotyping to bridge computational science with clinical knowledge, translating cutting-edge science to solve problems of great clinical need.

  • Lu Chen

    Lu Chen

    Professor of Neurosurgery and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
    On Leave from 11/01/2023 To 04/30/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWhat distinguishes us humans from other animals is our ability to undergo complex behavior. The synapses are the structural connection between neurons that mediates the communication between neurons, which underlies our various cognitive function. My research program aims to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie synapse function during behavior in the developing and mature brain, and how synapse function is altered during mental retardation.

  • Tamar Green

    Tamar Green

    Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Brain Imaging, Development, and Genetic (BRIDGE) Lab focuses on disorders associated with child development, such as attention deficits, hyperactivity, and autism spectrum disorders. we aim to uncover biological principles of how genetic variation and its associated downstream pathways affect children's neurodevelopmental disorders.

  • Scott S. Hall, Ph.D

    Scott S. Hall, Ph.D

    Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy primary area of scholarly and clinical interest is the pathogenesis of problem behaviors shown by individuals diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), particularly those with neurogenetic forms of IDD, such as fragile X syndrome, Cornelia de Lange syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome. My work aims to both advance understanding of these disorders and to identify effective new treatment approaches for pediatric and adult patient populations by state-of-the-art methodologies, such as brain imaging, eye tracking and functional analysis to determine how environmental and biological factors affect the development of aberrant behaviors in these syndromes. The end goal of my research is to create patient-specific methods for treating the symptoms of these disorders.

  • David S. Hong

    David S. Hong

    Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Interdisciplinary Brain Science Research)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Hong is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and clinician-scientist. His responsibilities span clinical care, teaching/mentorship, and research, with a unifying theme of advancing a developmental cognitive framework as applied to psychiatric conditions. Using this core premise, he work encompasses multiple domains: specialized clinical care, fellowship training, research mentorship, and elaborating the role of sex-specific determinants of development, one of the greatest contributors to individual developmental variation.

    His lab investigates genetic and hormonal influences underlying sex differences in child psychiatric conditions. Sex has emerged as a critical variable driving differences in the phenomenology, course, and treatment of many mental health disorders. Unfortunately, an understanding of the biological mechanisms driving these effects are limited. By applying innovative neuroimaging and multiomic approaches, Dr. Hong seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the connection between sex-specific effects and complex psychiatric diseases. To do so, research in the Hong Lab focuses on the role of genes on the X and Y chromosomes, as well as circulating sex hormones on brain development, cognition, and behavior. The lab broadly aims to elucidate the changing nature of these mechanisms across various stages of development.

    Another area of focus is the implementation of clinical informatics in child psychiatry and the development of digital mental health tools. As co-Director of the Mental Health Technology and Innovation Hub, Dr. Hong is helping to develop clinical and research infrastructure within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences to advance development of mobile mental health resources that will improve efficacy and access to mental health care.

  • Hadi Hosseini

    Hadi Hosseini

    Associate Professor (Research) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Interdisciplinary Brain Science Research)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab’s research portfolio crosses multiple disciplines including computational neuropsychiatry, cognitive neuroscience, multimodal neuroimaging and neurocognitive rehabilitation. Our computational neuropsychiatry research mainly involves investigating alterations in the organization of connectome in various neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive disorders using state of the art neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, sMRI, DWI, functional NIRS) combined with novel computational methods (graph theoretical and multivariate pattern analyses).

    The ultimate goal of our research is to translate the findings from computational neuropsychiatry research toward developing personalized interventions. We have been developing personalized interventions that integrate computerized cognitive rehabilitation, real-time functional brain imaging and neurofeedback, as well as virtual reality (VR) tailored toward targeted rehabilitation of the affected brain networks in patients with neurocognitive disorders.

  • Booil Jo

    Booil Jo

    Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Interdisciplinary Brain Science Research)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLatent Variable Modeling, Causal Inference, Longitudinal Data Analysis, Missing Data Analysis, Mixture and Growth Mixture Modeling, Prevention Science Methodology.

  • Allan L. Reiss

    Allan L. Reiss

    Howard C. Robbins Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Radiology
    On Partial Leave from 01/01/2024 To 06/30/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy laboratory, the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research (CIBSR), focuses on multi-level scientific study of individuals with typical and atypical brain structure and function. Data are obtained from genetic analyses, structural and functional neuroimaging studies, assessment of endocrinological status, neurobehavioral assessment, and analysis of pertinent environmental factors. Our overarching focus is to model how brain disorders arise and to develop disease-specific treatments.

  • Manish Saggar

    Manish Saggar

    Assistant Professor (Research) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Interdisciplinary Brain Science Research)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are a computational neuropsychiatry lab dedicated to developing computational methods to better understand brain’s overall dynamical organization in healthy and patient populations. We employ algorithms from a wide range of fields, including Applied Mathematics, Econometrics, Machine Learning, Biophysics, and Network Science.

  • Gisela Sandoval

    Gisela Sandoval

    Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences

    BioDr. Gisela Sandoval is a physician scientist with dual board certification who specializes in medical-psychiatric illness caring for individuals that suffer from medical conditions at the interface of medicine and psychiatry, which often requires complex chronic care. In addition she treats children with a broad range of psychiatric disorders including neurodevelopmental disorders, ADHD and mood and anxiety disorders in adolescents. She has a thorough and comprehensive way to approach her patients; she considers not only the clinical symptoms but also the impact of the family structure and the functioning of the child at school. Dr. Sandoval has a special interest in establishing standard of care guidelines to address the needs of chronically ill children to promote healthy habits and medical treatment compliance that promote health and decrease the burden of chronic medical and psychiatric illness.
    Dr. Sandoval graduated with honors from the California Institute of Technology where she performed research in brain physiology and evolution. She earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School where she also completed a Ph.D. specializing in molecular neurobiology and genetics. Dr. Sandoval completed her residency in general psychiatry at the University of Chicago, during which she received the NIMH Outstanding Resident Award. She went on to complete a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency of Columbia and Cornell Universities. After training she became the Clinical Director of the Warren Wright Adolescent Center at Northwestern University developing a successful clinical program focused on early identification and intervention for adolescents at risk of mental illness before moving to Stanford.
    Dr. Sandoval scientific interests focus on understanding the molecular, neurophysiological and neural circuits that are responsible for healthy brain development and behavior and understanding how these are altered in the developmental neuropsychiatric disorders resulting in pathological behaviors with the expectation that that could lead to new treatments. Furthermore, she is interested in identifying quantifiable metrics of behavior to better diagnosis mental illness by exploring the use of physical activity monitors to help assess the effectiveness of medical therapies.