School of Medicine


Showing 21-40 of 67 Results

  • Nielsen Fernandez-Becker

    Nielsen Fernandez-Becker

    Clinical Associate Professor, Medicine - Gastroenterology & Hepatology

    BioI am the director of the Celiac Disease Program at Stanford and I am highly experienced in diagnosis and management of celiac disease and gluten associated disorders.
    My objective is to provide excellent and compassionate clinical care for my patients while seeking a better understanding of diseases I treat, particularly Celiac disease (CeD), eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). My top priorities are patient care and translational research to make new discoveries and improve the care my patients.

  • Michael Fischbach

    Michael Fischbach

    Liu (Liao) Family Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe microbiome carries out extraordinary feats of biology: it produces hundreds of molecules, many of which impact host physiology; modulates immune function potently and specifically; self-organizes biogeographically; and exhibits profound stability in the face of perturbations. Our lab studies the mechanisms of microbiome-host interactions. Our approach is based on two technologies we recently developed: a complex (119-member) defined gut community that serves as an analytically manageable but biologically relevant system for experimentation, and new genetic systems for common species from the microbiome. Using these systems, we investigate mechanisms at the community level and the strain level.

    1) Community-level mechanisms. A typical gut microbiome consists of 200-250 bacterial species that span >6 orders of magnitude in relative abundance. As a system, these bacteria carry out extraordinary feats of metabolite consumption and production, elicit a variety of specific immune cell populations, self-organize geographically and metabolically, and exhibit profound resilience against a wide range of perturbations. Yet remarkably little is known about how the community functions as a system. We are exploring this by asking two broad questions: How do groups of organisms work together to influence immune function? What are the mechanisms that govern metabolism and ecology at the 100+ strain scale? Our goal is to learn rules that will enable us to design communities that solve specific therapeutic problems.

    2) Strain-level mechanisms. Even though gut and skin colonists live in communities, individual strains can have an extraordinary impact on host biology. We focus on two broad (and partially overlapping) categories:

    Immune modulation: Can we redirect colonist-specific T cells against an antigen of interest by expressing it on the surface of a bacterium? How do skin colonists induce high levels of Staphylococcus-specific antibodies in mice and humans?

    Abundant microbiome-derived molecules: By constructing single-strain/single-gene knockouts in a complex defined community, we will ask: What are the effects of bacterially produced molecules on host metabolism and immunology? Can the molecular output of low-abundance organisms impact host physiology?

    3) Cell and gene therapy. We have begun two new efforts in mammalian cell and gene therapies. First, we are developing methods that enable cell-type specific delivery of genome editing payloads in vivo. We are especially interested in delivery vehicles that are customizable and easy to manufacture. Second, we have begun a comprehensive genome mining effort with an emphasis on understudied or entirely novel enzyme systems with utility in mammalian genome editing.

  • Adam Frymoyer

    Adam Frymoyer

    Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Neonatal and Developmental Medicine
    Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests focus on understanding the clinical pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of medicines used in complex pediatric populations. This includes identifying sources of variation in drug response through the application of population PK-PD modeling and simulation approaches. The goal is to ultimately apply this quantitative understanding to guide therapeutic decision-making in infants and children.

  • Hayley Gans

    Hayley Gans

    Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Infectious Diseases

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe focus of my laboratory is the immune response to viral vaccines evaluating the ontogeny of responses in infants and limitations in immunocompromised hosts. We have studied responses to an early two-dose measles immunization, one versus 2 doses of varicella immunization, and polio vaccine in preterm versus term infants. Other active areas of research include measles and varicella immunity in HIV infected individuals, and transplant recipients.

  • Chris Garcia

    Chris Garcia

    Younger Family Professor and Professor of Structural Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsStructural and functional studies of transmembrane receptor interactions with their ligands in systems relevant to human health and disease - primarily in immunity, infection, and neurobiology. We study these problems using protein engineering, structural, biochemical, and combinatorial biology approaches.

  • Christopher Gardner

    Christopher Gardner

    Rehnborg Farquhar Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe role of nutrition in individual and societal health, with particular interests in: plant-based diets, differential response to low-carb vs. low-fat weight loss diets by insulin resistance status, chronic disease prevention, randomized controlled trials, human nutrition, community based studies, Community Based Participatory Research, sustainable food movement (animal rights and welfare, global warming, human labor practices), stealth health, nutrition policy, nutrition guidelines

  • Rachel E. Herdes

    Rachel E. Herdes

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Gastroenterology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAs a pediatric physician-investigator, I strive to understand the role of nutrition and diet therapy in pediatric health. I am particularly interested in understanding and developing novel treatment plans for adolescent patients with obesity and in establishing guidelines to improve health outcomes for pediatric intestinal failure patients.

    Current research studies include novel treatment options for pediatric metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), health equity in pediatric patients with intestinal failure, and medication management after metabolic and bariatric surgery in pediatric patients with severe obesity.

  • Sohail Z Husain

    Sohail Z Husain

    Chambers-Okamura Endowed Professor of Pediatric Gastroenterology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research delves into three broad areas of the exocrine pancreas: (1) The crucial signaling pathways that initiate and transduce pancreatitis; (2) the factors that turn on pancreatic regeneration and recovery after pancreatic injury; and (3) the mechanisms underlying drug-induced pancreatitis.

  • Hilary Jericho

    Hilary Jericho

    Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Gastroenterology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am a clinical associate professor of pediatric gastroenterology and the Inaugural Medical Director of the Celiac Disease Program at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford whose clinical practice and research have an emphasis on the diagnosis and management of celiac disease. I was appointed the Director of Pediatric Clinical Research at the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center in 2014. I am deeply involved in both local community and national professional societies serving as the Director of the Chicagoland Children’s Health Alliance (CCHA) endoscopy committee and am a member of the CCHA celiac committee, the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) celiac special interest group, CeliacKids (a pediatric multi-center celiac research focused collaborative), the Standards-Based Active Guideline Environment (a committee responsible for the establishment of guidelines for accommodating children with celiac disease within school settings across the United States), and the NASPGHAN Endoscopy committee. My clinical work and research focus on pediatric celiac disease (CeD) and have resulted in numerous publications, peer-reviewed articles, and book chapters. This research has also helped to establish myself as an expert in the field of pediatric celiac disease leading to invitations to speak and be a moderator at both local and national meetings, including the internationally attended University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center educational preceptorship programs, the NASPGHAN annual meeting and Beyond Celiac. I have additionally been called up to provide celiac specific journal reviews as well as expert opinions to leading publications, including US News and World Report, Reader’s Digest and Reuter’s. The current application builds logically on my prior work in the field of pediatric celiac disease for which I have successfully administered the projects (staffing, research coordination, budgeting, data analysis and manuscript creation). In summary, I have the expertise, leadership, training, and motivation necessary to successfully carry out the proposed research projects.

  • John Kerner

    John Kerner

    Professor of Pediatrics (Gastroenterology), Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am interested in pediatric nutritional support and have experience evaluating new enteral and parenteral products especially for the neonate (I studied a "new" I.V. fat product for Abbott; I participated in a multicenter trial of a formula with fish oil in it for neonates with Mead Johnson and a multicenter trial of a new human milk fortifier for Wyeth).

  • Kian Keyashian

    Kian Keyashian

    Clinical Associate Professor, Medicine - Gastroenterology & Hepatology

    BioThe management of inflammatory bowel disease continues to evolve, with the introduction of biologic and small molecule therapies and new goals of treatment, with an emphasis on healing the bowel. My career goal since my graduation from IBD fellowship in 2012 has been to improve the outcomes and quality of life of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. In line with these goals, my research has focused investigating new noninvasive diagnostic test, finding factors early in the disease course that might predict a more aggressive disease course and need for different therapies, and investigating new promising effective medications with less side effects.

  • Nasim Sabery Khavari

    Nasim Sabery Khavari

    Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Gastroenterology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPediatric Gastroenterology, Celiac Disease, Nutrition in Celiac Disease

  • 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.

  • Calvin Kuo

    Calvin Kuo

    Maureen Lyles D'Ambrogio Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study cancer biology, intestinal stem cells (ISC), and angiogenesis. We use primary organoid cultures of diverse tissues and tumor biopsies for immunotherapy modeling, oncogene functional screening and stem cell biology. Angiogenesis projects include blood-brain barrier regulation, stroke therapeutics and anti-angiogenic cancer therapy. ISC projects apply organoid culture and ko mice to injury-inducible vs homeostatic stem cells and symmetric division mechanisms.