School of Medicine


Showing 1-20 of 27 Results

  • Steven Artandi, MD, PhD

    Steven Artandi, MD, PhD

    Laurie Kraus Lacob Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute (SCI), Jerome and Daisy Low Gilbert Professor and Professor of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsTelomeres are nucleoprotein complexes that protect chromosome ends and shorten with cell division and aging. We are interested in how telomere shortening influences cancer, stem cell function, aging and human disease. Telomerase is a reverse transcriptase that synthesizes telomere repeats and is expressed in stem cells and in cancer. We have found that telomerase also regulates stem cells and we are pursuing the function of telomerase through diverse genetic and biochemical approaches.

  • Onn Brandman

    Onn Brandman

    Associate Professor of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Brandman Lab studies how cells sense and respond to stress. We employ an integrated set of techniques including single cell analysis, mathematical modeling, genomics, structural studies, and in vitro assays.

  • Patrick O. Brown

    Patrick O. Brown

    Professor of Biochemistry, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Brown, currently an emeritus professor, is founder of Impossible Foods, a company dedicated to replacing the world's most destructive technology - the use of animals to transform plant biomass into meat, fish and dairy foods - by developing a new and better way to produce the world's most delicious, nutritious and affordable meats, fish and dairy foods directly from plants. Visit impossiblefoods.com for more information. He is also founder and president of the Impossible Foundation.

  • Douglas L. Brutlag

    Douglas L. Brutlag

    Professor of Biochemistry, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy primary interest is to understand the flow of information from the genome to the phenotype of an organism. This interest includes predicting the structure and function of genes and proteins from their primary sequence, predicting function from structure simulating protein folding and ligand docking, and predicitng disease from genome variations. These goals are the same as the goals of molecular biology, however, we use primarily computational approaches.

  • Stephen Chang, MD, PhD

    Stephen Chang, MD, PhD

    Instructor, Biochemistry
    Instructor, Biochemistry
    Instructor, Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioPrior to a career in medicine, Dr. Chang was an English major and subsequent novelist at night. During the days, he taught literature part-time at Rutgers University, and for extra money, worked in a laboratory in NYC washing test tubes. Inspired by his laboratory mentor, he began volunteering at the hospital next door, and developed a love for interacting with patients. Through this experience, he saw how caring for others could form deep bonds between people - even strangers - and connect us in a way that brings grandeur to ordinary life.

    In addition to seeing patients, Dr. Chang is a physician-scientist devoted to advancing the field of cardiovascular medicine. His research has been focused on identifying a new genetic organism that better models human heart disease than the mouse. For this purpose, he has been studying the mouse lemur, the smallest non-human primate, performing cardiovascular phenotyping (vital signs, ECG, echocardiogram) on lemurs both in-bred (in France) and in the wild (in Madagascar) to try to identify mutant cardiac traits that may be heritable - and in the process, characterize the first high-throughput primate model of human cardiac disease.

  • Gilbert Chu

    Gilbert Chu

    Professor of Medicine (Oncology) and of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAfter shuttering the wet lab, we have focused on: a point-of-care device to measure blood ammonia and prevent brain damage; a human protein complex that juxtaposes and joins DNA ends for repair and V(D)J recombination; and strategies for teaching students and for reducing selection bias in educational programs.

  • Karlene Cimprich

    Karlene Cimprich

    Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and, by courtesy, of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsGenomic instability contributes to many diseases, but it also underlies many natural processes. The Cimprich lab is focused on understanding how mammalian cells maintain genomic stability in the context of DNA replication stress and DNA damage. We are interested in the molecular mechanisms underlying the cellular response to replication stress and DNA damage as well as the links between DNA damage and replication stress to human disease.

  • Rhiju Das

    Rhiju Das

    Professor of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab seeks an agile and predictive understanding of how nucleic acids and proteins code for information processing in living systems. We develop new computational & chemical tools to enable the precise modeling, regulation, and design of RNA and RNA/protein machines.

  • Ronald W. Davis

    Ronald W. Davis

    Professor of Biochemistry and of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Human to conduct whole genome analysis projects. The yeast genome sequence has approximately 6,000 genes. We have made a set of haploid and diploid strains (21,000) containing a complete deletion of each gene. In order to facilitate whole genome analysis each deletion is molecularly tagged with a unique 20-mer DNA sequence. This sequence acts as a molecular bar code and makes it easy to identify the presence of each deletion.

  • James Ferrell

    James Ferrell

    Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab has two main goals: to understand the regulation of mitosis and to understand the systems-level logic of simple signaling circuits. We often make use of Xenopus laevis oocytes, eggs, and cell-free extracts for both sorts of study. We also carry out single-cell fluorescence imaging studies on mammalian cell lines. Our experimental work is complemented by computational and theoretical studies aimed at understanding the design principles and recurring themes of regulatory circuits.

  • Alex Gao

    Alex Gao

    Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsNature has created many powerful biomolecules that are hidden in organisms across kingdoms of life. Many of these biomolecules originate from microbes, which contain the most diverse gene pool among living organisms. We are integrating high-throughput computational and experimental approaches to harness the vast diversity of genes in microbes to develop new antibiotics and molecular biotechnology, and to investigate the evolution of proteins and molecular mechanisms in innate immunity.

  • Pehr Harbury

    Pehr Harbury

    Associate Professor of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsScientific breakthroughs often come on the heels of technological advances; advances that expose hidden truths of nature, and provide tools for engineering the world around us. Examples include the telescope (heliocentrism), the Michelson interferometer (relativity) and recombinant DNA (molecular evolution). Our lab explores innovative experimental approaches to problems in molecular biochemistry, focusing on technologies with the potential for broad impact.

  • Daniel Herschlag

    Daniel Herschlag

    Professor of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering
    On Leave from 06/01/2023 To 04/30/2024

    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.

  • Chaitan Khosla

    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.

  • Peter S. Kim

    Peter S. Kim

    Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor of Biochemistry
    On Partial Leave from 09/01/2023 To 06/30/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are studying the mechanism of viral membrane fusion and its inhibition by drugs and antibodies. We use the HIV envelope protein (gp120/gp41) as a model system. Some of our studies are aimed at creating an HIV vaccine. We are also characterizing protein surfaces that are referred to as "non-druggable". These surfaces are defined empirically based on failure to identify small, drug-like molecules that bind to them with high affinity and specificity.

  • Silvana Maria Konermann

    Silvana Maria Konermann

    Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
    On Leave from 04/25/2022 To 04/24/2024

    BioSilvana is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford and Executive Director and Core Investigator at Arc Institute. Her research laboratory aims to understand the molecular pathways that drive the development of Alzheimer’s disease using next-generation functional genomics, with the long-term goal of developing rationally targeted therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from MIT. Silvana’s pioneering work on tools to directly perturb the transcriptomic landscape of the cell using CRISPR has been recognized by her faculty appointment as a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator and Hanna Gray Fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

  • Mark Krasnow

    Mark Krasnow

    Paul and Mildred Berg Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly Interests- Lung development and stem cells
    - Neural circuits of breathing and speaking
    - Lung diseases including lung cancer
    - New genetic model organism for biology, behavior, health and conservation

  • I Lehman

    I Lehman

    William M. Hume Professor in the School of Medicine, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study Herpes simplex virus type 1 as a model eukaryotic chromosome for the analysis of eukaryotic DNA replication and recombination

  • Lingyin Li

    Lingyin Li

    Associate Professor of Biochemistry

    BioDr. Li is an associate professor in the Biochemistry Department and ChEM-H Institute at Stanford since 2015. Her lab works on understanding biochemical mechanisms of innate immunity and harnessing it to treat cancer. She majored in chemistry at University of Science and Technology of China and graduated with a B. En in 2003. She then trained with Dr. Laura Kiessling, a pioneer in chemical biology, at University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated with a Ph.D in chemistry in 2010. She obtained her postdoctoral training with Dr. Timothy Mitchison at Harvard Medical School, who introduced her to the field of chemical immunology.