School of Medicine
Showing 1-50 of 177 Results
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Marta Arenas Jal
Postdoctoral Scholar, Bioengineering
BioMarta holds a PhD in pharmaceutical technology and an Executive MBA. She is passionate about healthcare research and innovation and has several years of experience in leading R&D projects within the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Stanford Biodesign, Marta worked at CIMTI which is an accelerator for health startups that supports innovators to develop and implement solutions that improve healthcare quality and patient outcomes.
Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a strong track record of successfully translating research and innovation into real-world impact. She is a curious, creative, and open-minded person who is always seeking to solve complex problems in order to make a positive impact on patients’ lives. In her current role as Innovation Fellow at Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, she is part of a team working on developing innovative solutions to address unmet needs in healthcare. -
BRIGHT ASARE-BEDIAKO
Postdoctoral Scholar, Ophthalmology
BioDr. Asare-Bediako is a Ghanaian-trained Optometrist who started his career as a Teaching/Research Assistant at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He obtained a doctorate degree in Vision Science from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, US, where he worked on animal models of diabetic retinopathy and hematopoiesis in Prof. Maria Grant’s lab. Currently, he is a postdoctoral scholar in Prof. Mary Elizabeth Hartnett’s lab studying retinopathy of prematurity. His current interests lie in understanding mechanisms of angiogenesis in retinopathy of prematurity and diabetic retinopathy.
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Mohan Babu Budikote Venkatappa
Postdoctoral Scholar, Genetics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLongitudinal host-microbial omics profiling and wearables-based monitoring to understand Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), its heterogeneity, and predictors of the diverse symptoms that ASD individuals experience.
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Stephanie Balters
Instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences
BioDr. Stephanie Balters is a neuroscientist, educator, and innovator committed to advancing team flourishing and purpose-driven innovation. As Director of the Empowerment Neuroscience Lab at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Balters employs cutting-edge neuroimaging and computational methods to uncover how adverse experiences, cultural influences, and societal expectations shape emotional reactivity, cognition, and behavior within teams. Her research identifies barriers to trust, collaboration, and innovation, while developing evidence-based interventions to unlock human potential and foster thriving, high-impact teams. As a Human Factors Specialist at NATO, Dr. Balters translates her research into actionable insights, empowering leaders to build resilient, high-performing teams that drive purpose-driven innovation. Dr. Balters also leads team innovation workshops at Stanford University, fostering authenticity, trust, and alignment to inspire transformative ideas for team science and business. With a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Design, Dr. Balters has held roles at Stanford’s Center for Design Research and the Computer Science Department before joining the School of Medicine.
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Anna Booman
Postdoctoral Scholar, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
BioAnna Booman, PhD, MS is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine. She conducts perinatal pharmacoepidemiology research to study the safety and effectiveness of medication use during pregnancy, since most pregnant individuals cannot be included in clinical trials. She uses large observational datasets, such as the Merative MarketScan Database, and complex epidemiologic methods in her research.
Dr. Booman received her PhD in Epidemiology from the Oregon Health & Science University School of Public Health, her MS in Computational Biology and Quantitative Genetics from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her BS in Mathematical Biology (minor: Computer Science) from the College of William & Mary. Her research has spanned many areas of perinatal epidemiology, including a focus on twin children, rare genetic disorders, gestational weight gain, and insurance discontinuity in pregnancy. -
Lacey Chetcuti
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioDr. Chetcuti, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral academic researcher within Stanford University’s Autism and Developmental Disorders Research Program (https://med.stanford.edu/autism.html) within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her doctoral degree from La Trobe University in Australia, specializing in developmental psychopathology and psychometrics. Dr. Chetcuti's research primarily focuses on advancing the measurement and characterization of individual differences in social-affective functioning in individuals with autism and other psychiatric conditions. Her work takes a lifespan perspective, acknowledging the dynamic nature of behavior across different life stages and its interaction with the environment. Dr. Chetcuti has actively collaborated with leading researchers in the United States, Europe, and Australia, contributing to the development of early developmental interventions to enhance functional social-affective outcomes while also analyzing individual difference factors that predict variable response to such approaches. Dr. Chetcuti possesses expertise in advanced statistical modeling techniques and is a core member of the newly-established Program for Psychometrics and Measurement-Based Care (https://med.stanford.edu/sppmc.html), dedicated to bridging the gap between the science of measurement development and clinical practice.
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Shashank Chetty
Postdoctoral Scholar, Radiology
BioMCHRI Post-doctoral Fellow
Co-Chair, SURPAS -
Priscila Chiavellini
Postdoctoral Scholar, Reproductive Biology
BioI am passionate about the underlying biological mechanisms of development occurring from birth to death. To my mind, one of the most significant promises of this science lies in understanding those mechanisms to improve the quality of life of young and old people. In my country Argentina, I pursued my doctoral degree in cell reprogramming to implement rejuvenation in aging rodents by restoring their biological age. The aim was to partially reprogram the nervous system using an adenovirus to revert age-associated memory impairment in old rats.
Dr. Sebastiano´s lab has developed powerful tools in the reprogramming and rejuvenation field. I have joined them to apply those techniques to delay ovarian aging with the ultimate goal of extending fertility and healthy aging, as well as to find new therapies for the preservation of fertility in child cancer survivors. -
Christina F. Chick
Instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Child Development
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research examines the mechanistic contributions of sleep, cognition and affect to the onset and course of psychiatric disorders across the lifespan. I am particularly interested in adolescence as a period during which changes in circadian rhythm, sleep architecture, and sleep behavior co-occur with neuroendocrine development, psychosocial changes, and the onset of many psychiatric disorders. Given that sleep is a highly treatable target, increasing our understanding of the specific contributions of sleep to psychiatric symptom onset may facilitate the development of targeted interventions to mitigate the course of illness.
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Andrea Cipriano
Instructor, Obstetrics & Gynecology - Reproductive Biology
BioDr Andrea Cipriano is an instructor at the Stem Cell Institute and at the Ob/Gyn department at Stanford School of medicine. Since the beginning of his career he was driven by a deep interest in the complexities of life emerging from just a single cell, harboring all the instructions to produce a fully functional organism. His academic journey began with a Bachelor's in Biotechnology and progressed to a Master's in Genomic Biotechnology, where he delved into the intricate world of RNA. During his PhD, Andrea focused on long non-coding RNAs and their pivotal role in cell differentiation, a topic that continues to fascinate him in his current research. He works in the Sebastiano lab, and he is directing several projects, including studying the transcription factor TBX1 during development of the Pharyngeal endoderm, and exploring the impact of time on Chromatin Structure, particularly in the context of aging and its potential reversal. As an instructor, Andrea has been teaching for 4 years at the intensive CIRM stem cell class biology course. Teaching is a big passion that fuels his academic pursuits. His dedication to education stems from a deep-seated belief in the transformative power of knowledge, which is what initially propelled him into the academic world.
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Laetitia Coassolo (Voilquin)
Senior Research Scientist - Basic Life, Pathology Sponsored Projects
Current Role at StanfordI am a Senior Research Scientist in Dr. Katrin Svensson's lab. I am interested in mapping tissue-specific peptide secretion to identify orphan peptide hormones.
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Maharshi Krishna Deb
Member, Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI aim to gain insights of the molecular underpinnings that are critical for the specification of human germ cells as well as the episode of epigenetic reprogramming that they undergo which is critical for their development and thereby essential for perpetual propagation of human species. Under co-mentorship of Prof. Azim Surani and Dr. Shiv Grewal,I aim to learn these lessons from this immortal lineage of human germline to identify interventions against various pediatric as well as degenerative
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Emily Ferguson, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioEmily Ferguson, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral academic researcher and clinician within Stanford University’s Autism and Developmental Disorders Research Program (https://med.stanford.edu/autism.html) within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of California Santa Barbara and completed her clinical internship at the University of California Los Angeles. Dr. Ferguson's research focuses on advancing understanding of mechanisms of challenging behaviors in autistic youth and adults to inform treatment development. Her work takes a comprehensive perspective, integrating methods from implementation science to improve the accessibility and quality of clinical care for underserved autistic populations, especially those with higher support needs (or "profound autism"). She is also interested in developing methods to improve self-regulation in individuals with profound autism to effectively manage self-injurious behaviors and aggression. Dr. Ferguson is currently supporting research in the Preschool Autism Lab (https://med.stanford.edu/autismcenter/pre-school-autism-lab-program.html), and exploring profiles of challenging behaviors with the Program for Psychometrics and Measurement-Based Care (https://med.stanford.edu/sppmc.html) in a diverse range of autistic and non-autistic youth to inform treatment approaches.
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Dorien Feyaerts
Instructor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBiomedical scientist and immunologist with a strong background in fetal-maternal immunology that aims to conduct impactful translational research in women’s health to improve the health of mothers and their children.
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Adina S. Fischer, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (General Psychiatry and Psychology)
On Leave from 10/10/2022 To 03/09/2025BioDr. Fischer’s research focuses on characterizing risk and resilience factors in depression. She has been awarded an NIH Career Development Award (K23) and Klingenstein Foundation Fellowship in Adolescent Depression to build her program of clinical and translational research at Stanford. Dr. Fischer's program of clinical care focused on the delivery and teaching of evidence-based clinical interventions that enhance resilience, with a focus on addressing the unique stressors encountered in academia and academic medicine that may contribute to risk and resilience in mood and anxiety disorders.
Dr. Fischer’s translational program of research focuses on:
(1) Improving our understanding of protective biomarkers of resilience to depression
(2) Characterizing the effects of cannabis on neurobiological function and depressive symptoms
(3) Developing neurobiologically-guided interventions for depressive disorders, particularly those that co-occur with cannabis and other substance use
Dr. Fischer earned her BSc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where she conducted research in the Early Childhood Cognition Laboratory. She then completed the MD/PhD Program at Dartmouth, where she obtained her PhD in in Neuroscience. Dr. Fischer’s doctoral research focused on characterizing the acute effects of cannabis in patients with schizophrenia and co-occurring cannabis use disorder. She then completed the Stanford Psychiatry Residency Training Program as a member of the Research Track, and an NIH funded T-32 postdoctoral research fellowship within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. -
Jenna Forsyth
Academic Program Professional, Medicine - Med/Infectious Diseases
BioJenna is a research scientist with the School of Medicine and affiliated with the King Center for Global Development, the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Doerr School of Sustainability. She completed her PhD with the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources and obtained her Master's in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington. Her research brings together principles of environmental science, epidemiology, and behavior change. She develops and evaluates interventions to minimize exposures to contaminants and disease vectors in low-income countries. Her most recent research has focused on lead exposure in South Asia.
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Elias Roth Gerrick
Member, Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI)
BioEli received his B.S. in Microbiology and Immunology from U.C. Irvine in 2013, where he worked in the lab of Dr. Celia Goulding. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2018 in the lab of Dr. Sarah Fortune, where he studied post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Eli joined the Howitt lab at Stanford in the summer of 2018, where he is studying the influence of protozoan members of the microbiome on intestinal immunity.
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Ruth Margaret Gibson
Postdoctoral Scholar, Health Policy
BioDr. Ruth M. Gibson is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Health Policy at Stanford Medicine. She is also a postdoctoral fellow, by courtesy, at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a postdoctoral affiliate at the Center for Innovation in Global Health.
Ruth’s academic focus is global health, foreign affairs, strategic studies, and population health. Her academic research seeks to improve maternal and child health in geopolitically complex countries–those dealing with war, other forms of geopolitical coercion, and diplomatic challenges. She is working with the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights Council to develop a universal system of monitoring to assess the impacts of sanctions on human rights. She has contributed to reports on the mental health impacts of war crimes for prosecutors at the International Criminal Court. She works with the Global Burden of Disease Consortium at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, as part of their efforts to publish global health estimation and forecasting.
Regionally, the emphasis of Ruth’s work is on Asia (Taiwan–China) due to the potential threat of a great-power conflict to protect children in crisis and enforce adherence to international humanitarian law as the character of war evolves, and on Sub-Saharan Africa (the Sahel) due to high forecasted fertility rates and widespread food insecurity in this fragile region of the world struggling with internal conflict, terrorism, and the impact of climate change. Ruth is competent in English, Mandarin Chinese, and French.
Ruth’s goal is to advance maternal and child health in the most complex and challenging regions of the globe.
Ruth’s appointment is supported by the Department of Health Policy and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, the most prestigious postdoctoral award given by the Government of Canada to future global leaders in health research, the natural sciences and humanities. The fellowship is named after Frederick Banting, one of the Canadian physicians who invented insulin and sold the patent for one dollar for the betterment of humanity.
Ruth spent a decade living abroad doing humanitarian and global health work in eight countries on five continents, focusing on fragile nations struggling with poverty, human rights abuses, and armed conflict. In her international work she witnessed the human impacts of war and nonviolent forms of geopolitical coercion, which informs her current academic research.
Ruth completed an Honor’s Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science at the University of Toronto, a fellowship in Medical Education at the Wilson Center for Medical Education at the University Health Network, and a PhD in Global Health and Strategic Studies at the University of British Columbia. -
Jen Haensel
Basic Life Research Scientist, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
BioI am a Research Scientist in the Roberts Vision Development & Oculomotor Lab at Stanford University’s Department of Ophthalmology, working at the intersection of vision science, neuroscience, and experimental psychology. My current research uses eye-tracking, photorefraction, and psychophysics to study oculomotor development and visual function in amblyopia, strabismus, and concussion. I also work on developing methodology to record accommodative measurements and gaze behaviour in dynamic, naturalistic settings.
I completed my PhD in Experimental Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London (UK), where I used advanced eye-tracking techniques to study the influence of postnatal experience on social gaze behaviour. Prior to joining Stanford, I also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bath (UK), developing empirical human-robot interaction studies to inform the ethical design of humanoid robots. -
Meghan Halley
Assistant Professor (Research) of Pediatrics (Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics)
BioMeghan Halley, PhD, MPH is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Research) in the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University School of Medicine. With training in medical anthropology, public health and health services research, her scholarship draws on multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches to examine ethical, legal, social and policy questions arising in clinical and translational research. Her areas of expertise include the ethics of new genomic technologies, normative frameworks for integrating research and clinical care, challenges and opportunities in patient and community engagement, and the epistemic and ethical implications of valuing new health interventions. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the National Science Foundation and published in high-impact journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, and the American Journal of Bioethics.