School of Medicine


Showing 10,421-10,430 of 12,906 Results

  • Branimir I. Sikic, M. D.

    Branimir I. Sikic, M. D.

    Professor of Medicine (Oncology), Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch Interests: cancer pharmacology, mechanisms of resistance to anticancer drugs, regulation and function of MDR1 and tubulin genes, CD47 as a target for activation of anticancer macrophases, Phase I trials of new drugs, gene expression profiling of cancers

  • Pilleriin Sikka

    Pilleriin Sikka

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI strive to understand the phenomenology, dynamics, mechanisms, and impact of subjective experiences that occur across different states of consciousness—from wakefulness to normal sleep and dreaming, to anesthesia dreaming, and to psychedelic experiences. As part of my doctoral research, conducted under the mentorship of Prof. Antti Revonsuo, I investigated the conceptual and methodological challenges in the study of dream experiences, the neural correlates of these experiences, and how dreaming is associated with waking well-being. In 2021, I joined Stanford University as a Postdoctoral Scholar, initially working at the Stanford Psychophysiology Laboratory under the mentorship of James J. Gross. In this role, I expanded my research to explore emotions and emotion regulation across the wake-sleep cycle and to study an oft-overlooked aspect of well-being--peace of mind. Since November 2023, I have been a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, where, under the mentorship of Dr. Boris Heifets, I am investigating transformative experiences, specifically, the mechanisms and therapeutic potential of anesthesia-induced dream states and psychedelic experiences.

    Leveraging my unique multidisciplinary background, my goal is to bridge the fields of consciousness research, sleep and dream research, emotion research, and well-being research and draw upon the concepts, theories, and methods from psychology, neuroscience, and (molecular) biology. To this end, I have experience in using diverse methods, including self-reports (development, validation, and use of questionnaires), interviews, ecological momentary assessment (EMA/ESM; diaries), behavioural experiments, natural language processing, sleep monitoring techniques, and electrophysiological (EEG/ERP) recordings, combined with qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

    With an overarching goal of conducting research with societal impact, I aspire to: (1) develop innovative diagnostic and prognostic markers of mental health and well-being, and (2) to devise and test interventions scalable for enhancing the mental and physical well-being of communities.

  • Ruwan Silva, MD, MPhil

    Ruwan Silva, MD, MPhil

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology

    BioProfessor Ruwan Amila Silva, MD, MPhil is board certified and fellowship trained vitreoretinal surgeon in the department of ophthalmology at Stanford University Medical Center. He received his BA in Neurobiology from Harvard University graduating Magna cum laude with Highest Honors. He then received his Masters of Philosophy (MPhil) in Neurobiology from Cambridge University in England. Following this, he received his medical degree from Stanford University’s School of Medicine. Dr. Silva completed his ophthalmology residency at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the top rated eye hospital in the country. While there he was awarded the Heed Fellowship, the most prestigious national award for ophthalmology residents in the country. Dr. Silva returned to Stanford University to complete his vitreoretinal surgery fellowship where he was awarded the Ronald G. Michels Foundation Award, the nation’s highest honor for a retina surgery fellow. During his fellowship at Stanford he was also awarded the prestigious Evangelos S. Gragoudas Award by the Macula Society. Following fellowship, Dr. Silva remained at Stanford University's School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Vitreoretinal Surgery in the Department of Ophthalmology. Since 2015, he has been named one of “America’s Top Ophthalmologists” by Consumers’ Research Council of America. He was also selected as a "Top Ophthalmologist" by the International Association of Ophthalmologists.

    Dr. Silva's clinical practice focuses mainly on macular degeneration and retinal vascular disease (such as diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusions and central serous retinopathy). Surgically, he specializes in diseases of the vitreous and retina: including repair of retinal detachments, surgery for the macula (such as treatment of epiretinal membranes and macular holes) and correction of dislocated intraocular lenses. His research interests mainly involve developing novel therapies for these diseases (http://med.stanford.edu/artificial-retina.html) and have resulted in over 50 combined peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, book chapters and national meeting presentations.

    Dr. Silva is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, as well as the American Society of Retina Specialists. He is a Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Ophthalmology.