School of Medicine


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  • Suman Acharya

    Suman Acharya

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Immunology and Rheumatology

    BioResearch focus: Immunology and Rheumatology, Immune metabolism

  • Muhammad Abdelbasset Muhammad Ahmad

    Muhammad Abdelbasset Muhammad Ahmad

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Infectious Diseases

    BioPostdoctoral fellow, Department of Medicine, Stanford University (2022– Present).

    PhD, Duke-National University of Singapore (2017 – 2021).

    MSc, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University (2014 – 2016).

    BSc, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University (2007 – 2012).

  • Maryam Amirahmadi

    Maryam Amirahmadi

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioDr. Maryam Amirahmadi is a microsurgery expert and postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. She obtained her Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. After more than a year of experience as a Family and Emergency Physician, she spent around 4 years at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences where she served as a pediatric and adult Cardiac Intensive Care physician and received training in cardiovascular surgery at Namazi and Faghihi hospitals. She then spent a year in the Department of Vascular Surgery at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, serving as a postdoctoral researcher and performing microsurgery on animals, with her research focused on therapeutic strategies to improve neovascularization after limb ischemia. Dr. Amirahmadi joined Stanford Cardiovascular Institute in 2022 where she is now a postdoctoral research fellow under the supervision of Prof. Philip S. Tsao, a renowned cardiovascular scientist. Her research interests and practical expertise include Microsurgery, and the effect of e-cigarette vaping on factors of inflammatory or immune pathways that can subsequently be related to the molecular mechanisms involved in angiogenesis and arteriogenesis in the murine model of hindlimb ischemia, as well as the mechanisms of e-cigarette and nicotine’s effects in augmenting Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) in rodent models of aortic aneurysm, including porcine pancreatic elastase-induced AAA. Dr. Maryam Amirahmadi and her colleagues are currently investigating the transgenerational effects of vaping/nicotine on abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) risk.

  • Ronan Arthur

    Ronan Arthur

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Infectious Diseases

    BioRonan Arthur (PhD) is a postdoctoral scholar in the Stanford School of Medicine. Ronan studies TB preventive therapy, adaptive behavior and community trust during epidemics through mathematical modeling techniques and empirical work in Liberia. Current research includes: hospital hand hygiene in Liberia; hospital ventilation in rural Liberia; adaptive behavior during epidemics with age-structure; quantifying gene-culture co-evolution; trust of government and health system during COVID-19 in Liberia; and agent-based modeling of COVID-19 and Ebola Virus Disease.

  • Florian Bach

    Florian Bach

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Infectious Diseases

    BioI'm a molecular infection biologist by training, but shifted my focus from pathogens to hosts for my graduate research. During my PhD with Phil Spence in Edinburgh I studied both falciparum and vivax malaria using controlled human (re)infection models, collaborating closely with the groups of Simon Draper and Angela Minassian in Oxford. As a hybrid bioinformatician and experimentalist, I love systems immunology for answering complex questions about human health. For my postdoc, I study in how the human immune response to malaria evolves in infants as they become reinfected and age. I'm also interested in how such early-life immunological events, malaria and beyond, may affect vaccine responses and immune development later in life. I address this question by making use of a longitudinal study cohort of infants receiving monthly chemoprevention in Eastern Uganda, together with our collaborators at UC San Francisco and IDRC Uganda.

  • Adrian Matias Bacong

    Adrian Matias Bacong

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAdrian M. Bacong, PhD, MPH is a social epidemiologist by training. His research seeks to identify social and structural factors that underlie health inequities by race, ethnicity, and immigration status. Specifically, his work has explored the role of socioeconomic factors in explaining health disparities by immigrant legal status and visa type. Furthermore, Adrian is interested in the effects of immigration on health. He received a NIH F31 award (1F31MD015931-01A1) to examine factors affecting the health of Filipino migrants to the U.S. compared to Filipinos remaining in the Philippines.

    Adrian has also examined the intersections of race, ethnicity, and immigration status among older adults. Finally, Adrian written upon the role of data disaggregation as a method of public health critical race praxis. Currently, Adrian is researching the role of social and policy level factors underlying health disparities among immigrants.

  • Cameron Scott Bader

    Cameron Scott Bader

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Bone Marrow Transplantation

    BioMy research is focused on using preclinical models to develop novel therapies which improve outcomes for patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Currently, my work aims to establish strategies to reduce the risk of relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without exacerbating graft-versus-host disease or interfering with donor stem cell engraftment.

  • Xiangqi Bai

    Xiangqi Bai

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Oncology

    BioMy research is focused on computational and systems biology. My primary research interest lies in developing new computational algorithms and statistical methods for the analysis of complex data in biological systems, especially related to the large-scale single-cell RNA sequencing data. The specific topics I have examined include:
    1. Integration of single-cell multi-omics datasets for tumor
    2. Statistical test of cell developmental trajectories
    3. Visualization and reconstruction of single-cell RNA sequencing data
    4. Computational analysis of the bifurcating event revealed by dynamical network biomarker methods

  • Vasiliki (Vicky) Bikia

    Vasiliki (Vicky) Bikia

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Informatics

    BioDr. Vasiliki Bikia is a Fellow at the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University, working with Prof. Roxana Daneshjou. She received her Advanced Diploma degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Greece, in 2017, and her Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 2021. Her Ph.D. research addressed the clinical need for providing non-invasive tools for cardiovascular monitoring leveraging machine learning and physics-based numerical modeling.

    Her current work focuses on developing large multimodal models to enhance biomarker identification and patient outcome prediction. At Stanford, she has also contributed to the Stanford Spezi framework, designing and prototyping the Spezi Data Pipeline tool for enhanced digital health data accessibility and analysis workflows. Her research interests include health algorithms, clinical and digital biomarkers, machine learning, non-invasive monitoring, and the application of large language models for personalized healthcare, predictive analytics, and enhancing patient-clinician interactions.

  • Pauline Brochet

    Pauline Brochet

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioPauline Brochet is a French scientist from Souraide, France. She completed her undergraduate studies in Molecular, Cellular and Physiological Biology (BSc, Université Clermont-Auvergne) and earned a Master's degree in Software Development and Data Analysis (MSc, Aix-Marseille Université). Pauline pursued a PhD at TAGC (Theories and Approaches for Genomic Complexity) in Marseille, France.

    Under the supervision of Dr. Christophe Chevillard and Dr. Lionel Spinelli, Pauline integrated multi-omics data from human heart tissue to investigate the pathogenic processes associated with Chagas Disease Cardiomyopathy (CCC). Notably, she contributed to the development of ChagasDB, the first database associating key features with the different stages of Chagas disease. Her research identified the involvement of mitochondrial DNA mutations, non-coding RNA, transcription factors, and DNA methylation in various pathogenic processes, all leading to the progression of CCC.

    Currently, at Stanford University, under the guidance of Dr. Matthew Wheeler and Dr. Daniel Katz, Pauline is conducting postdoctoral research on multi-omics data analysis as part of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC). Her work focuses on identifying key covariable features associated with physical exercise, with the ultimate goal of discovering exercise-mimetic drugs that could help prevent heart diseases.

  • Paulami Chatterjee

    Paulami Chatterjee

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research involves studying the pathogenic mechanisms underlying the host-pathogen interaction in pulmonary diseases. I am particularly interested in exploring transcriptomic and proteomic changes in Cystic Fibrosis and Asthma patients who develop severe allergic inflammation due to fungal hypersensitivity. Complete understanding of these interaction will help us identify significant fungal virulence factors and help us define clinically relevant targets for therapeutic use.

  • Ming Li (Estella) Chen

    Ming Li (Estella) Chen

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioI am an MD from Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan. Before coming to Stanford, I obtained my MS degree in epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, where I completed graduate training in clinical, pharmacologic, and genetic epidemiology, and pursued advanced skills in biostatistics and causal inference.

    My past research focused on real-world epidemiology studies using patient registries and national health insurance databases to elucidate the predictors or risk factors of immunologic diseases. For my graduate study, I conducted pharmacoepidemiology studies using electronic health record (EHR) data to elucidate the predictors of anti-drug antibodies development and its correlation to autoimmunity, to identify the generation of immunogenicity that may impact the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody therapies in individuals with autoimmune diseases. I gained experience in genetic data manipulation to investigate polymorphisms in response to monoclonal antibody therapies in asthma patients.

    At Stanford, I am involved in research on the identification of molecular determinants of cardiometabolic diseases.

  • Tianqi Chen

    Tianqi Chen

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Oncology

    BioMy research interest lies in liquid biopsy and early cancer diagnostics, e.g. development of bioassay for detection of cancer biomarkers (proteins and genes) and single-cell research. As well as the integration of 3D-printed microfluidics.

  • Ya'el Courtney

    Ya'el Courtney

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Immunology and Rheumatology

    BioDr. Ya’el Courtney is a postdoctoral scholar in Immunology and Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, working with Dr. William H. Robinson. Her research focuses on uncovering the mechanisms underlying post-acute sequelae following viral and bacterial infection. Dr. Courtney earned her PhD from Harvard University, where she investigated the role of the choroid plexus in brain development and its response to maternal psychedelic exposure. Beyond research, she is passionate about science communication and mentoring the next generation of scientists.

  • Hejie Cui

    Hejie Cui

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Informatics

    BioDr. Hejie Cui is a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the intersection of machine learning, data mining, and biomedical informatics. At Stanford, Dr. Cui works on large language model (LLM) evaluation and post-training for healthcare. Dr. Cui has authored and co-authored several publications in top computer science and interdisciplinary venues, including NeurIPS, KDD, AAAI, CIKM, TMI, and MICCAI. Her work contributes to advancing the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare and improving the understanding of complex biomedical data. Dr. Cui was selected as a Rising Star in EECS in 2023. She has also received numerous awards, including the Fellowship of 2021 CRA-WP Grad Cohort for Women, Student Travel Grant Award for MICCAI'22, NSF Travel Grant for CIKM'22, and NeurIPS AI4Science Travel Award for NeurIPS'22. Dr. Cui holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Emory University (2024) and a B.Eng. in Computer Science and Engineering from Tongji University (2019). During her graduate studies, she gained industry experience through internships at Microsoft Research and Amazon Science.

  • Ali Etemadi

    Ali Etemadi

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Nephrology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am a clinician and data scientist focusing on drawing causal inferences from observational data when randomized controlled trials are not feasible. Currently, my work centers on patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease, a rapidly growing population for which evidence is limited due to their frequent exclusion from RCTs. At the moment, I aim to move towards precision medicine approaches to optimize outcomes for these patients.

  • Sonia Ferkel

    Sonia Ferkel

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Gastroenterology

    Bio08/2023 - Present: Postdoctoral Scholar - Precision Medicine, Spatial-Omic Technologies - Stanford University
    2023: Preclinical Research Trainee - Translational Molecular Sciences - Max Planck-Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences Göttingen, Germany
    2021 - 2022: Clinical Intern - Focus on Oncology and Gastroenterology - University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany

  • Priya Fielding-Singh

    Priya Fielding-Singh

    Postdoctoral Scholar, SCRDP/ Heart Disease Prevention

    BioI am a Sociologist and Postdoctoral Fellow in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. My research examines health, gender, and social inequality.

    My primary research agenda investigates health disparities across class, race, and gender in the United States. I draw on both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand how neighborhoods, schools, and families shape our health behaviors and outcomes. My work has been published in journals such as Social Science & Medicine, Obesity, Sociological Science, and the Journal of Adolescent Health.

    I hold a Ph.D. in Sociology from Stanford University, a M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Bremen, and a B.S. in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University.

  • Xiyu Ge

    Xiyu Ge

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Endocrinology, Gerontology, and Metabolism

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI’m interested in understanding parathyroid hormone (PTH) signaling and its role in bone remodeling and the bone marrow microenvironment during critical growth periods. My research investigates how PTH influences osteoblast function and interacts with other signaling pathways. Using advanced single-cell sequencing and multi-omics approaches, I aim to uncover cellular and molecular pathways influenced by PTH, elucidate pediatric bone disorders, and identify potential therapeutic targets.

  • Joshua Gillard

    Joshua Gillard

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioDr. Josh Gillard is a Canadian biomedical data scientist with experience in bioinformatics, machine learning, and immunology. After completing a BSc and a MSc in Experimental Medicine at McGill university, he relocated to the Netherlands for his PhD in bioinformatics at Radboud University in Nijmegen. During his PhD, he gained experience analyzing and interpreting complex immunological data (bulk and single-cell transcriptomics, high-dimensional cytometry, high-throughput proteomics) derived from human observational or intervention studies (vaccination and experimental human infection) in order to discover molecular and cellular correlates of clinically important endpoints such as disease severity, symptom progression, and antibody responses. In 2022, Josh relocated to Stanford to join the Gaudilliere lab to develop and apply multi-omic data integration and machine learning techniques, establishing that early gestational immune dysregulation can predict preterm birth. Since 2024, in the Ashley lab, Josh is focused on applying deep learning models to investigate aberrant splicing in cardiovascular disease.

  • Ethan Goh, MD, MS

    Ethan Goh, MD, MS

    Postdoctoral Scholar, General Internal Medicine

    BioDr. Ethan Goh is an experienced healthcare executive with a background in informatics, digital health transformation, and strategic innovation. His research at Stanford focuses on leading multi-site, grant-funded evaluation of Large Language Model applications within healthcare. As a cited healthcare AI expert, Dr. Goh's work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other leading publications.

    Prior to academic research, he was an Internal Medicine clinician, startup founder, and technology consultant, working with partners like Google, OpenAI, Roche, Samsung, and the NHS in the development, validation and commercialization of digital health products and AI technology. He holds a medical degree from Imperial College London, and a Masters in Clinical Informatics and Management from Stanford University.

  • Bruna Gomes

    Bruna Gomes

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe increasing availability of very large datasets, along with recent advances in deep learning based tools for automatic extraction of cardiac traits, has led to the discovery of further common variants associated with cardiac disease. However, the genetic underpinnings of valvular heart disease remains understudied. I am interested in developing deep learning techniques to automatically extract cardiac flow information to facilitate genome-wide association studies of cardiac flow traits.

  • François Grolleau

    François Grolleau

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Informatics

    BioFrançois Grolleau MD, MPH, PhD is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research. His research work centers on developing and evaluating computational systems that use large language models and other advanced methods from statistics and machine learning to assist medical decision-making.

    François is a certified Anesthesiologist and Critical Care Medicine specialist from France. He holds an MPH degree and a PhD in Biostatistics from Paris Cité University. In 2016/2017, he worked as a research fellow in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University, Canada (Profs Yannick Le Manach and Gordon Guyatt). During his doctorate with Prof. Raphaël Porcher, he utilized causal inference, personalized medicine methods, and statistical reinforcement learning for medical applications in the ICU.

  • Richard Haarburger

    Richard Haarburger

    Postdoctoral Scholar, General Internal Medicine

    BioRichard Haarburger is a postdoctoral scholar in general medicine with a background in economics. During his PhD, he worked on addressing measurement biases and data gaps, handling high-dimensional data, and quantifying the implications of heterogeneous technology adoption. During his time as a scientific trainee at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, he conducted policy research on Europe's competitiveness in industrial automation technologies and the increasing adoption of AI in manufacturing.

    At Stanford, he applies causal inference methods to research questions in population health and epidemiology. His research interests include impact evaluation methods, causal machine learning, and the impact of AI on healthcare and the economy.

  • Elizabeth Holman

    Elizabeth Holman

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Gastroenterology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI currently explore the application of vibrational spectroscopic technologies for biomedical imaging and precision medicine for clinical use. My research interests are directly related to chemical imaging technology development, which include but are not limited to spectral and image processing and analysis, machine learning applications, autonomous adaptive data acquisition, and vibrational spectroscopic applications to the biomedical sciences.

  • Zepeng Huo

    Zepeng Huo

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Informatics

    BioConducting research on Foundation Models for medicine

  • Hirotaka Ieki

    Hirotaka Ieki

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioCardiologist in Japan.
    Research interest: precision medicine in cardiovascular disease. Genomics, Exposomics.

  • Hiroyuki Inoue

    Hiroyuki Inoue

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioPhysician-scientist passionate about bridging research findings and clinical practice
    - Board certified cardiologist with 10+ years clinical experience, focused on cardiovascular diseases including heart failure, ischemic heart disease, arrhythmia, and general internal medicine
    - Experience of 400+ cases as the primary operator in percutaneous coronary intervention, catheter ablation, and cardiac device implantation
    - Research expertise in extracelluler vesicles, regenerative medicine, genome editing and gene therapy

    Dr. Inoue joined the Yang lab in 2022. His research focuses on developing novel therapeutics for heart failure by targeting cardiomyocyte metabolism

  • Mathangi Janakiraman

    Mathangi Janakiraman

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Gastroenterology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAs a postdoctoral scholar, I am studying the gut ecosystem, gut functionality nad neuroimmune interactions during aging and age-associated diseases like AD, and the role of fermented food in modulating gut health. I expect to be able to show that dietary modifications can help with healthy aging and to contribute to possibly leveraging dietary interventions therapeutically in age-associated diseases.

  • Vishnu Priya Kanakaveti

    Vishnu Priya Kanakaveti

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Oncology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am interested in elucidating molecular mechanisms of MYC-driven drug resistance and immune evasion in cancer using computational and experimental models.

  • Abraar Karan, MD MS MPH DTM&H

    Abraar Karan, MD MS MPH DTM&H

    Postdoctoral Medical Fellow, Infectious Diseases
    Fellow in Medicine - Med/Infectious Diseases

    BioI am an infectious disease fellow and post-doctoral researcher in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, the Luby Lab, the Center for Innovation in Global Health, the King Center on Global Development, and the Woods Institute for the Environment. I worked on the Covid19 outbreak for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in 2020, and the Monkeypox outbreak for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in 2022-23. I also served on the WHO-commissioned Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response's research team investigating early global spread of Covid19, and helped with policy-writing for the Biden-Harris campaign on reducing Covid19 in schools. I am currently the Principal Investigator of the following studies: a cluster-randomized controlled trial investigating whether air filtration and ventilation can reduce spread of Covid19 in low-income homes in the Bay Area (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05777720); piloting a low-cost rural surveillance system for detecting spillover of zoonotic diseases in Western Kenya. I am also a co-investigator on a study focused on surveillance of H5N1 in humans in Central California.

    I completed my internal medicine residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in the Global Health Equity program, and have been working in global health since 2008. I co-edited the book, "Protecting the Health of the Poor" (December 2015, Bloomsbury Publishing, https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/protecting-the-health-of-the-poor-9781783605521/); and co-founded Longsleeve insect repellent, winner of the 2018 Harvard Business School New Venture Competition and finalist in the 2019 Harvard President's Challenge. Media/press coverage has included NBC, ABC, BBC, PBS, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Washington Post, New York Times, SF Chronicle, Bloomberg, Boston Globe, ProPublica, WSJ, TIME, Politico, CBC News, Democracy Now, NPR, ESPN, The Atlantic, The Hill, Business Insider, Vice, Mother Jones, Vox, Forbes, Slate, STAT News, MTV News, Mother Jones, Science Friday, TMZ.

    For a full list of publications, please see "Publications" tab. For full list of press/media interviews, please see "Media" link.

    Teaching Experience:
    Teaching Assistant-- Epi 231, Infectious Disease Epidemiology (Winter 2024)
    Teaching Assistant-- Epi 237, Practical Approaches to Global Health Research (Autumn 2024)
    Teaching Assistant-- Epi 231, Infectious Disease Epidemiology (Winter 2025)

  • Arash Keshavarzi

    Arash Keshavarzi

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioArash has a background in molecular biology and chemistry, and earned his PhD in AI-driven drug discovery, where his work led to the identification of three candidate drugs for breast cancer, validated both in vitro and in vivo. Following this, he joined a lab at UCSF for his first postdoctoral position which led to a patent for AI drug discovery applications which led to multiple patents and articles. Throughout his career, Arash has also been involved in multiple ventures. He served as the Chief Scientific Officer at Nucleus Genomics with $17 million seed funding, and co-founded Lumos Bio, a stealth focused on RNA-targeted drug discovery. Currently, Arash is a NIH T32 fellow postdoc in the Ashley Lab and an investment fellow in Mubadala Capital

  • Pik Fang Kho

    Pik Fang Kho

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioI obtained my PhD in genetic epidemiology at Queensland University of Technology (Australia), where my research was focused on using genetic and genomic approaches to identify risk factors for endometrial cancer. During my graduate studies, I gained experience in large-scale genetic association studies and leveraging the correlation between diseases in genetic studies to identify novel genetic variants associated with endometrial cancer. I also developed expertise in various statistical genetic approaches in multi-omics data, including fine-mapping and colocalization analyses, to prioritize candidate causal variants and genes. I also gained extensive experience in genetic causal inference analysis to infer causality between risk factors and health outcomes.

    My research focus since moving to Stanford has been the identification of genetic and non-genetic determinants of cardiometabolic diseases. I am currently involved in projects including large-scale genetic association studies, multi-trait analysis with correlated traits, development and validation of polygenic risk scores, integrative analyses with multi-omics data, as well as Mendelian randomization analyses to advance our understanding of the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to cardiometabolic diseases.

  • David Kinitz

    David Kinitz

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Nephrology

    BioDavid J. Kinitz, PhD, MSW is a social and behavioural health scientist and social worker with a passion for understanding the complex social, political, and economic systems that shape LGBTQ+ mental health and wellbeing. David holds a PhD in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and graduate and undergraduate degrees in social work from York University and Lakehead University, respectively. His work primarily draws on critical qualitative and mixed-methods methodologies to deconstruct systems of oppression, such as racism, cissexism, heterosexism, and classism. He looks at how these systems reinforce social hierarchies that produce ill-health, particularly as they relate to labour market phenomena. David’s doctoral research employed narrative inquiry and Marxist political economy theories to study economic insecurity, precarious employment, and mental health among gay, bisexual, and queer men in Toronto, Canada. David continues this area of scholarship through leading and collaborating on various projects exploring access to social assistance, employment quality, employment skills and training, and economic insecurity among LGBTQ+ people in Canada and the US.

  • Qinqin Kong

    Qinqin Kong

    Postdoctoral Scholar, General Internal Medicine

    BioI am currently a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Departments of Medicine and Health Policy at Stanford University, after earning a PhD in atmospheric science from Purdue University. My research interests lie at the intersection of climate change—particularly extreme heat—and human society. I aim to advance our understanding of the physical mechanisms, cascading impacts, and the effectiveness of potential mitigation strategies for human heat stress. My PhD research focused on how land-atmosphere interactions modulate heat stress, as well as the economic and energy impacts of increasing heat stress in the context of climate change. My postdoctoral research at Stanford evaluates the impact of heat stress on public health, especially human fertility, in low- and middle-income countries. My methodological areas of expertise include climate modeling, human biophysics modeling, and econometric modeling, which I am further developing at Stanford.

  • Nathalie Lambrecht

    Nathalie Lambrecht

    Postdoctoral Scholar, General Internal Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Lambrecht's research aims to address malnutrition and environmental degradation from two angles: (1) evaluating climate-resilient agricultural strategies to improve global food security, nutrition, and health, and (2) assessing approaches to promote consumption of healthy and sustainable diets.

    Climate-resilient agriculture for human health: Across various countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, Dr. Lambrecht investigates small-scale crop and livestock agroecology as a win-win strategy to benefit human nutrition, the environment, and households’ resilience to climate change. Her current work aims to understand whether integrated crop-livestock rearing can buffer the potential negative impacts of climate shocks on children's growth in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda. During her PhD, Dr. Lambrecht examined linkages between household livestock ownership and anemia in children in southern Ghana, investigating the hypothesis that rearing livestock could alleviate anemia by providing a source of micronutrient-rich animal-source foods, yet could also exacerbate anemia by exposing children to zoonotic pathogens. Dr. Lambrecht has also worked on a large-scale homestead food production trial in Bangladesh, examining impacts on agricultural production, and children's and women's diets and health.

    Healthy and sustainable diets: Shifting diets towards sustainable and healthy plant-forward dietary patterns is essential for mitigating climate change, reducing biodiversity loss and habitat destruction, and reducing non-communicable chronic diseases. Dr. Lambrecht is a lead researcher of the NURISHD (NURsing home and hospital food service – Implementation of Healthy and Sustainable Diets) study. This research project examines the environmental footprint and nutritional quality of food service in German healthcare institutions and evaluates the feasibility of shifting dietary patterns toward the Planetary Health Diet.

  • Max Lamparth

    Max Lamparth

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Infectious Diseases

    BioMax is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the Stanford Center for AI Safety, the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative, and the Brainstorm Lab at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He is advised by Prof. Clark Barrett, Prof. Steve Luby, and Prof. Paul Edwards.

    With his research, he wants to make AI systems more secure and safe to use. Specifically, he is focussing on improving the ethical behavior of language models, making their inner workings more interpretable, and increasing their robustness against misuse.

    Max received his Ph.D. in August 2023 from the School of Natural Sciences at the Technical University of Munich and previously a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Physics from the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg.

  • TZU HAN LO

    TZU HAN LO

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Gastroenterology

    BioTzu-Han Lo, a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Academia Sinica, has made contributions to the field of macrophage biology. His work has particularly focused on inflammation, especially in the context of fibrotic response. One of his works includes a study on the regulation of macrophage polarization in ureteral obstruction. This research has illuminated the role of inflammatory cell infiltration and activation during the early stages of kidney injury, a common pathological feature of chronic kidney disease.

    In addition to his work on macrophage biology, Tzu-Han Lo has also delved into research related to galectins, a family of β-galactoside–binding proteins. His work in this area has centered on the role of galectins in recognizing microbial glycans, particularly lipopolysaccharides (LPSs). He has explored their impact on host defense mechanisms, including autophagy and both canonical and non-canonical inflammasome signaling pathways.

    His research has offered insights into the complex interactions between host immunity and microbial components. This has contributed to our understanding of inflammatory responses and their implications for human health.

  • Hector Rodrigo Mendez

    Hector Rodrigo Mendez

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioDr. Hector Rodrigo Mendez is a Medical Geneticist from Argentina. Rodrigo completed a residency program in Medical Genetics at Centro Nacional de Genetica Medica – ANLIS (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and a Master’s program in Medical Molecular Biology at Buenos Aires University.

    Rodrigo continued his scientific career at a German Genomic Start-up, working as a human geneticist and providing his experience in rare disorders, genomic data (WGS/WES/gene panels) analysis, variant interpretation, and its integration with a deep focus on genotype-phenotype correlation.

    Rodrigo’s areas of expertise are rare disorders, NGS technology, Whole Genome Sequencing analysis, and ACMG interpretation guidelines, and his research aims are:

    - Collection and analysis of clinical data through deep-learning phenotyping approaches.
    - Multi-omic data integration to elucidate complex and rare genetic disorders.
    - Drive progress in curing rare genetic diseases, particularly among critically sick infants.

    At Stanford University, under the supervision of Dr. Matthew Wheeler, he is conducting his postdoctoral research studies to achieve his scientific goals.

  • Yimam Misganie

    Yimam Misganie

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Infectious Diseases

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Misganie's research focuses on AI-driven analysis of complex datasets, particularly in viral infections like HIV drug resistance (HIVDR). He use AI and machine learning to understand viral dynamics, drug resistance mechanisms, and treatment outcomes. His work integrates big data and genomic data to inform public health strategies. He also study viral molecular epidemiology using whole-genome sequencing and apply NLP techniques to enhance research in global health.

  • Samuel Montalvo Hernandez

    Samuel Montalvo Hernandez

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioAs a clinical exercise physiologist and sport biomechanist, I am dedicated to advancing human exercise and sports performance. I hold certifications as a Performance and Sport Scientist (CPSS) and as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist with Distinction (CSCS, *D) from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). In 2022, I was honored with the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship and a T32 Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Research Training in Myocardial Biology (TIMBS) at Stanford University.

    My research focuses on understanding the mechanical, molecular, and physiological mechanisms that underpin human performance. I am also committed to developing innovative and practical training methods to enhance exercise and sports performance. Currently, I am a member of the Stanford Bioinformatics Core, contributing to the NIH-funded Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC) project. In this capacity, I analyze extensive clinical and exercise datasets, as well as multi-omic, multi-tissue, multi-exercise modality, and multi-species data, to uncover new insights into the biological mechanisms of physical activity and its impact on human health and performance.

    In addition to my primary research focus, I collaborate with several teams at Stanford on projects involving Sports and Electrocardiography, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing, Exercise and Neuromuscular Disease, and the Stanford Baseball Team.

    Beyond research, I am deeply committed to teaching, mentoring, and promoting diversity. As a first-generation college graduate and a Mexican-American with Indigenous heritage, I bring a unique perspective to my work, which informs my dedication to creating supportive and inclusive spaces for underrepresented groups in science and education. I serve as a Post-Doc Mentoring Coach in collaboration with the Stanford Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, where I facilitate bi-weekly workshops on mentoring for postdocs. I am also part of the Stanford PRISM program, which promotes inclusion and diversity among postdoctoral scholars. Furthermore, I mentor prospective and current medical students through the MAVERICs program (Metascience Analyses and Explorations of Reproducibility in Cardiovascular Science) as part of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, supporting their growth in cardiovascular research.

    These experiences reflect my dedication to fostering an inclusive and supportive academic environment. My long-term goal is to become a professor, combining my passion for research, education, and mentoring the next generation of scientists to advance the fields of exercise physiology and sports science.