School of Medicine


Showing 21-40 of 57 Results

  • Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD

    Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD

    Professor of Radiology (Body MRI) and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery, of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Urology

    BioDr. Ghanouni is a board-certified, fellowship-trained diagnostic radiologist with Stanford Health Care Radiology. He is an associate professor in the Department of Radiology, Division of Body MRI at Stanford University School of Medicine, and by courtesy, of Urology, of Neurosurgery, and of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

    Dr. Ghanouni is the director of the Stanford Health Care Minimally Invasive MR Interventional Center (MIMRIC) and the Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence. He is also chief of the Division of Body MRI at Stanford University School of Medicine.

    Dr. Ghanouni is recognized around the world for his extensive expertise in using advanced imaging to diagnose, manage, and treat a wide range of conditions and disorders. As a renowned leader in diagnostic and MRI-guided interventional radiology, Dr. Ghanouni creates a customized care plan for each of his patients.

    Dr. Ghanouni’s research interests include the latest advances in MR-guided focused ultrasound techniques to treat essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease, prostate cancer, bone tumors, desmoid tumors, and uterine fibroids. An experienced physician-scientist, Dr. Ghanouni has collaboratively led clinical trials and research initiatives that explore treatments for epilepsy, pancreatic cancer, and several types of tumors. Through these clinical trials, Dr. Ghanouni has helped secure FDA approval for many MR-guided focused ultrasound treatments.

    His articles have been published in dozens of peer-reviewed medical journals, including Lancet Oncology, Neurology, Investigative Radiology, European Radiology, Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Journal of Neurosurgery, New England Journal of Medicine, and Radiology. Dr. Ghanouni has been invited to speak at conferences and symposiums all over the nation and the world, including in Rome, Italy; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is widely regarded for his groundbreaking research as well as his clinical expertise.

    Dr. Ghanouni is a member of several professional organizations, including the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound, and the European Focused Ultrasound Society.

    MR-guided focused ultrasound treatment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bwq2YxD9eU

  • Harcharan Gill

    Harcharan Gill

    Kathryn Simmons Stamey Professor, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBenign Prostatic Hyperplasia- Evaluation and development of new minimally invasive techniques

    Endourology: developing, designing and evaluating new instruments

    Bladder cancer: outcomes of treatment

    BPH: cryotherapy and HIFU

  • Vanessa Gulla, MD

    Vanessa Gulla, MD

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Urology

    BioDr. Gulla is a board-certified urologist with fellowship training in endourology. She is a clinical assistant professor in the Stanford University School of Medicine Department of Urology.

    For each patient, she develops a comprehensive, compassionate care plan customized to individual needs. Her goal is to help each patient achieve the best possible health and quality of life.

    Dr. Gulla performs the complete spectrum of diagnostic and treatment procedures for urological conditions. She treats disorders including benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), blood in urine, kidney stones, male and female voiding dysfunction, neurogenic bladder, prostate cancer, and over active bladder.

    She excels at ureteroscopy and cystoscopy (examination of the bladder and urinary tract with a scope), endourology (minimally invasive treatment of kidney stones), laser therapy, ultrasound-guided diagnosis and treatment, urodynamic testing, and other techniques.

    To help advance her field, Dr. Gulla has conducted research. Among the topics she has investigated are voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) testing in children for bladder and urethral abnormalities and for conditions that can lead to kidney infections.

    She has presented her research findings at the national meeting of the American Urologic Association. She also has published papers in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and elsewhere.

    She is a member of the American Urologic Association.

  • Kathleen Kan

    Kathleen Kan

    Assistant Professor of Urology

    BioDr. Kathleen Kan is a fellowship-trained pediatric urologist with a clinical practice based at LPCH and additional outreach programs in the South Bay. Her current practice includes general, endoscopic and complex reconstructive procedures and a clinical counseling interest in kidney stone disease and differences in sexual differentiation. She currently serves as the Associate Program Director of the Urology residency program.

    Her current research is focused on understanding why health elementary schoolchildren develop new bladder and bowel problems.

  • Marvin Langston

    Marvin Langston

    Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and, by courtesy, of Urology

    BioDr. Marvin Langston is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health. He is a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute and Urologic Cancer Epidemiology Lab. He is an epidemiologist by training who focuses on the fields of benign prostate and pelvic conditions and urological cancers including prostate and kidney cancers.

    Prior to Stanford, he served as a Research Scientist in the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Dr. Langston received his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health followed by postdoctoral training in Cancer Prevention and Control at Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine.

    His program of research intends to characterize and measure infectious agents, environmental toxicants, and lifestyle factors; to evaluate the role of these factors in urological cancer etiology and outcomes; and to identify populations at high risk of exposure to these factors. So far he has focused this research to address the following questions: 1) What role do sexually transmitted infections and other systemic infections have in prostate damage and ensuing prostate cancer risk? 2) How can we appropriately model and define early life risk factors for urological cancers? 3) Can we harmonize molecular and clinical aspects of urological condition diagnoses to produce well characterized outcomes for biomarker discovery and etiological investigation? He has primarily addressed these questions using a variety of molecular and clinical epidemiology approaches while developing expertise in the cross-cutting theme of cancer health disparities with particular interests in the cancer care experiences of sexual and gender minorities and racial/ethnic minorities.

    Dr. Langston has been studying the impact of exogenous factors on prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentration in young men as a marker of prostate damage and inflammation for over a decade. As early life PSA has been found predictive of future prostate cancer mortality, he has now setout to optimize risk-stratified screening for prostate cancer. This promising approach uses men’s baseline PSA values to inform their risk of future aggressive and/or fatal prostate cancer and determine their frequency of further screening. Under this approach, men with high baseline age-specific total PSA levels receive more frequent screening and men with lower levels receive less frequent screening. Dr. Langston was awarded an R01 from NCI to evaluate this approach using historically collected biospecimen. His funded research trajectory to this point also includes four training awards (2-NCI and 2-NIDDK) and several internal grants. Dr. Langston was selected in the inaugural class of the White House Cancer Moonshot Scholars for his work.

  • John Leppert

    John Leppert

    Professor of Urology and, by courtesy, of Nephrology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research aims to improve the global quality of care for patients with Urologic Cancer with a particular focus on kidney cancer. We are investigating novel proteomic platforms and assays to diagnose kidney cancer and predict response to therapy. We are evaluating the comparative effectiveness of various kidney cancer surgeries and their impact on chronic kidney disease and its downstream effects. We are applying epidemiology, bioinformatics, and health services methods to urologic conditions.

  • Joseph C. Liao

    Joseph C. Liao

    Kathryn Simmons Stamey Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe overarching theme of my scholarship is to develop precision diagnostics in imaging and biomarkers to guide the delivery of precision therapy for urological diseases including bladder cancer, urinary tract infections, and kidney stone disease.

  • Lu,Guolan

    Lu,Guolan

    Assistant Professor of Urology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Lu Lab develops spatial omics and AI technologies to measure, model, and predict how cells, tissues, and therapeutic agents interact in their native spatial context, and how these interactions drive disease progression and treatment response.

  • Alan C. Pao

    Alan C. Pao

    Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and, by courtesy, of Urology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are broadly interested in how the kidneys control salt, water, and electrolyte homeostasis in the body. Our disease focus is on kidney stone disease. We use cultured kidney cells, transgenic mice, human plasma/urine samples, and electronic health record data to study the pathogenesis of kidney stone disease. Our therapeutic focus is on the development of small molecule compounds that can be used for kidney stone prevention.

  • Christopher K. Payne, MD

    Christopher K. Payne, MD

    Professor of Urology at the Stanford University Medical Center, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsObstetric Fistula Projects:
    1. Preoperative ultrasound evaluation to detect ureteric involvement in vesicovaginal fistulas
    2. Patient narrative study to identify key medical, social and economic factors that lead to fistula formation
    3. Study of urinary continence after fistula repair

    Pelvic pain: investigation into role of pelvic floor in chronic pelvic pain

  • Donna Peehl, PhD

    Donna Peehl, PhD

    Professor (Research) of Urology, Emerita

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on the molecular and cellular biology of the human prostate. Developing realistic experimental models is a major goal, and primary cultures of prostatic epithelial and stromal cells are my main model system. Our discoveries are relevant to prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of benign and malignant prostatic diseases.

  • Alexandra LaPat Polasko

    Alexandra LaPat Polasko

    Instructor, Urology

    BioDr. Alexandra Polasko is an instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Urology. Before that she was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. James Brooks lab. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. from UCLA in Civil and Environmental Engineering in Dr. Shaily Mahendra's lab and bachelors from UC Berkeley. Before coming to Stanford, she was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA in the School of Dentistry, Oral Biology Division under Dr. Hung Ton-That where she studied the role motility plays as a virulence factor in oral pathogens. Currently, Dr. Polasko's research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms that drive benign prostate hyperplasia, which is the abnormal growth of the prostate and affects nearly 80% of men over eighty and can result in impaired urine storage and voiding as well as renal failure. She is a co-inventor on two patents and received UCLA's prestigious Distinguished Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants (2021).

  • Kris B. Prado, MD

    Kris B. Prado, MD

    Assistant Professor of Urology

    BioDr. Kris Prado is a urologic oncology fellowship trained surgeon-scientist, board-certified urologist, and Assistant Professor in the Stanford University Department of Urology. His clinical practice focuses on urologic oncology, and he performs open, endoscopic, and robotic surgery. In addition to his clinical role, he is also an active member of Philip Beachy's laboratory where his research focuses on bladder urothelial development and regeneration.