School of Medicine


Showing 21-40 of 51 Results

  • Norman J. Lacayo, MD

    Norman J. Lacayo, MD

    Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology and Oncology)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPediatric Hematology/Oncology, Phase I drug studies for refractory and relapsed leukemia; genomic studies, biologic risk-stratification and treatment of acute myeloid leukemia; prediction or induction response and risk of relapse using phosphoproteomics in childhood AML; novel MRD techniques in childhood ALL.

  • Michael Link

    Michael Link

    Lydia J. Lee Professor of Pediatric Cancer

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHematology/Oncology, treatment of sarcomas of bone and soft tissue, biology of acute lymphoblastic leukemias, treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease.

  • Clara Lo

    Clara Lo

    Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Hematology & Oncology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch interests include:
    Biomarkers and targeted therapy in pediatric immune thrombocytopenia
    Transfusion-related iron overload
    Hemophilia and other rare bleeding disorders
    Thrombophilia

  • Adrienne H. Long, MD, PhD

    Adrienne H. Long, MD, PhD

    Instructor, Pediatrics - Hematology & Oncology

    BioAdrienne H. Long, MD, PhD is an instructor in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. Dr. Long attend Northwestern University, where she earned both her BS in biomedical engineering and her MD. Determined to help develop novel treatments for pediatric cancer patients, she took time during medical school to pursue a PhD at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she helped advance CAR T cell therapies with Dr. Crystal Mackall. Her influential thesis work was the first to identify T cell exhaustion as a critical factor limiting efficacy of CAR therapies (Long et al., Nature Medicine, 2015), and also identified novel methods to enhance CAR therapies for pediatric solid tumor patients (Long/Highfill et al., Cancer Immunology Research, 2016). Dr. Long went on to complete her pediatrics residency training at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she continued her research in cancer immunology with Dr. Nicholas Haining – this time focusing on strategies to enhance antigen presentation to augment checkpoint blockade (Long et al. Keystone Symposium on Cancer Immunotherapy, 2019). She completed her pediatric oncology fellowship at Stanford, and remains dedicated to a career as a physician-scientist focused on developing novel immunotherapies for children with cancer. She is currently conducting her post-doctoral research with Dr. Mark Davis, studying how thymic selection, designed to prevent auto-immunity, may also inhibit antitumor immunity in children.

  • Crystal Mackall

    Crystal Mackall

    Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor and Professor of Pediatrics and of Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsRecent clinical studies, by us and others, have demonstrated that genetically engineered T cells can eradicate cancers resistant to all other therapies. We are identifying new targets for these therapeutics, exploring pathways of resistance to current cell therapies and creating next generation platforms to overcome therapeutic resistance. We have discovered novel insights into the biology of human T cell exhaustion and developed approaches to prevent and reverse this phenomenon.

  • Anupama Narla

    Anupama Narla

    Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests are to study the pathophysiology of ribosomopathies and to translate these insights into the work-up and management of pediatric bone marrow failure syndromes.

  • Allison Pribnow

    Allison Pribnow

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Hematology & Oncology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSolid Tumors, Bone Sarcomas, Global Oncology, Health Disparities

  • Sneha Ramakrishna

    Sneha Ramakrishna

    Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology)

    BioSneha Ramakrishna obtained her B. A. from the University of Chicago and her M.D. from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. In medical school, through the Howard Hughes Medical Research Scholar Award, she joined Dr. Crystal Mackall’s laboratory, where she designed and developed various GD2 CAR-Ts and tested them in preclinical models. During her residency training in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, she cared for some of the first patients treated with CD19 CAR T cells, learning the power of this therapy first-hand. During her fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Johns Hopkins/National Cancer Institute combined program, she worked with Dr. Terry Fry. She evaluated the mechanism of CD22 CAR T cell relapse in patients by developing an antigen escape model and establishing a deeper understanding of the effects of antigen density on CAR-T phenotype, expansion, and persistence (Fry…Ramakrishna…Mackall Nat Med, 2018; Ramakrishna, et al., Clinical Cancer Research, 2019). Since arriving at Stanford, Dr. Ramakrishna leads an interdisciplinary team that designs, develops, and successfully implements a robust correlative science platform for our novel CAR-T therapies. Analyzing patient samples from our first-in-human GD2 CAR-T trial (NCT04196413) treating a universally fatal cancer, diffuse midline glioma (DMG), we identified that intracerebroventricular CAR-T administration correlates with enhanced pro-inflammatory cytokines and reduced immunosuppressive cell populations in cerebrospinal fluid as compared to intravenous CAR-T administration (Majzner*, Ramakrishna*, et al., Nature 2022 *co-first authors). Her research program evaluates unique sets of patient samples using novel single-cell immune profiling to identify the drivers of CAR-T success or failure. Building on these findings, her team assesses approaches to enhance CAR-T efficacy and translate these findings to the clinic.

    Clinically, Dr. Ramakrishna cares for children with solid tumors and treats hematologic, solid, and brain tumor pediatric patients with CAR T cell therapies in the Cancer Cellular Therapies program.

  • Raya Saab

    Raya Saab

    Lindhard Family Professor of Pediatric Cancer Biology

    BioOur laboratory focuses on investigating molecular mechanisms of oncogene-induced tumorigenesis and tumor suppressor pathways, and oncogenic signaling in the pediatric solid tumor rhabdomyosarcoma. Our earlier work identified the tumor suppressors p53 and p18Ink4c as inhibitors of Cyclin D1-driven tumorigenesis in a pineoblastoma model, through senescence induction, and highlighted distinct roles for the the RB and p53 pathways in induction and maintenance of oncogene-induced senescence. We also identified CDK2 as a potential target for inducing senescence in premalignant lesions to inhibit tumor progression.
    Our current focus is on studying oncogenic signaling and tumor suppression in the childhood tumor rhabdomyosarcoma, to identify key mediators of invasion and metastasis, which is the most common cause of treatment failure clinically. We use preclinical in vitro and in vivo models, including murine and human cell lines, and mouse models of disease.
    We have recently uncovered a paracrine role for rhabdomyosarcoma-secreted exosomes in impacting biology of stromal cells. Rhabdomyosarcoma-derived exosomes carry specific miRNA cargo that imparts an invasive and migratory phenotype on normal recipient fibroblasts, and proteomic analysis revealed specific and unique pathways relevant to the two different molecular rhabdomyosarcoma subtypes that are driven by distinct oncogenic pathways. We identified that the driver oncogene in fusion-positive rhabdomyosarcoma, PAX3-FOXO1, modulates exosome cargo to promote invasion, migration, and angiogenic properties, and identified specific microRNA and protein cargo acting as effectors of PAX3-FOXO1 exosome-mediated signaling, including modulation of oxidative stress response and cell survival signaling.
    Our ongoing work is focused on interrogating specific paracrine signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms of metastatic disease progression in rhabdomyosarcoma, for potential therapeutic targeting.

  • Julien Sage

    Julien Sage

    Elaine and John Chambers Professor of Pediatric Cancer and Professor of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe investigate the mechanisms by which normal cells become tumor cells, and we combine genetics, genomics, and proteomics approaches to investigate the differences between the proliferative response in response to injury and the hyperproliferative phenotype of cancer cells and to identify novel therapeutic targets in cancer cells.

  • Kathleen M. Sakamoto

    Kathleen M. Sakamoto

    Shelagh Galligan Professor in the School of Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on the molecular pathways that regulate normal and aberrant blood cell development, including acute leukemia and bone marrow failure syndromes. We are also studying novel drugs for treatment of cancer.

  • Liora Schultz

    Liora Schultz

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Hematology & Oncology

    BioI am currently postdoctoral research fellow pursuing immunotherapy research in the oncology department at Stanford University. My clinical training as a pediatric hematology oncology fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center highlighted the desperate need for novel therapeutic options for a subtype of aggressive pediatric leukemia, Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Despite our best standard of care for AML, long term survival rates range from 50-60% with an unacceptably high relapse rate of 40%. The urgent need for novel treatments inspired me to pursue a research project in adoptive immunotherapy, genetically modifying Tcells to express artificial T cell receptors, termed chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), that target AML specific antigens. In parallel to my clinical training, I constructed an AML specific CAR and demonstrated its ability to redirect T cell function mediating eradication of AML cells. As the field of CAR therapy rapidly advances, novel methods to optimize this therapeutic modality are imperative. To this end, supported by research demonstrating superior antitumor function of naïve derived effector T cells compared to central memory derived effector T cells, I am investigating whether preferential modification of naïve T cells to express CARs will generate a T cell subpopulation with increased efficacy. Consolidating my clinical and research experiences within highly academic institutes allows me to synthesize my pursuit of scientific rigor and commitment to the field of oncology, with a mission to achieve productive research and translatable results.

  • Mona D. Shah, MD, MBA

    Mona D. Shah, MD, MBA

    Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Hematology & Oncology

    BioDr. Mona Shah is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist, who earned her MD degree at the University of Maryland in 2001. She completed both her categorical pediatrics and global health residencies in 2004, followed by a pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship in 2007. She earned her MS in Clinical Investigation as part of the Clinical Scientist Training Program (CSTP) at Baylor College of Medicine in 2011, and more recently, completed an Executive MBA at Rice University Jones School of Business in 2018.

    Dr. Shah was an Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine (2007 - 2020) in both Pediatrics and Medicine, local site PI on a number of pediatric hemostasis/thrombosis clinical trials, and spent 10 years as an Associate Medical Director of Clinical Operations, Quality, and Safety at Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX.

    Dr. Shah joined Genentech (a Member of the Roche Group)’s Rare Blood Disorders Franchise (Product Development - Oncology-Hematology) in February 2020, quickly advancing to Lead Medical Director, where she served as Medical Monitor for 2 Phase III Clinical Trials (crovalimab in atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, aHUS). She was also engaged with the Renal Franchise (I2O) in developing crovalimab in Lupus Nephritis (Phase I & II Clinical Trials in development), and with Human Factors/Pediatric Formulations Working Group on autoinjector devices and oral formulations.

    After completing a rotation in Early Development Safety (EDS), she was promoted to Senior Medical Safety Director in Late Stage Product Development, and was appointed Safety Strategy Lead for giredestrant in early and metastatic breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancer global clinical trials. She has experience in innovative study designs (adaptive/multi-drug), with FDA/EMA pediatric investigational plans, and health authority interactions. In June 2023, she was appointed Pediatric Safety Lead, in collaboration with the iPODD Team, supporting safety for pediatric indications and devices, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Pediatric Safety Expert Group.

    Dr. Shah has kept and completed a bucket list since she was 7 years old (keeps growing): Running wild bouldering/rock climbing as a child in the Shenandoah/Blue Ridge Mountains, swimming with dolphins/piranhas in the Amazon, climbing inside a volcano caldera in Iceland, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef ... have passport/will travel!

    Since July 2022, she has joined Stanford University School of Medicine, as an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, where she enjoys teaching MSII students, and at the bedside in the Lucille Packard Bass Center Hematology Clinic. Dr. Shah enjoys free time in her new home base near San Francisco, where she hosts her visiting parents, friends, and extended family.