School of Medicine
Showing 51-78 of 78 Results
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Ravi Majeti MD, PhD
Director, Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor and Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Stem Cell Institute)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Majeti lab focuses on the molecular/genomic characterization and therapeutic targeting of leukemia stem cells in human hematologic malignancies, particularly acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Our lab uses experimental hematology methods, stem cell assays, genome editing, and bioinformatics to define and investigate drivers of leukemia stem cell behavior. As part of these studies, we have led the development and application of robust xenotransplantation assays for human hematopoietic cells.
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M. Peter Marinkovich, MD
Associate Professor of Dermatology
On Leave from 05/01/2025 To 04/30/2026Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Marinkovich lab studies the function of epithelial extracellular matrix molecules, including integrins, collagens and laminins in epithelial development and carcinoma progression. We apply our discoveries in this area towards development of molecular therapies for carcinomas, hair disease and inherited epithelial adhesive disorders.
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Roeland Nusse
Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur laboratory studies Wnt signaling in development and disease. We found recently that Wnt proteins are unusual growth factors, because they are lipid-modified. We discovered that Wnt proteins promote the proliferation of stem cells of various origins. Current work is directed at understanding how Wnt signals lead to the proliferation of stem cells and on understanding Wnt signaling during repair and regeneration after tissue injury.
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Lucy Erin O'Brien
Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMany adult organs tune their functional capacity to variable levels of physiologic demand. Adaptive organ resizing breaks the allometry of the body plan that was established during development, suggesting that it occurs through different mechanisms. Emerging evidence points to stem cells as key players in these mechanisms. We use the Drosophila midgut, a stem-cell based organ analogous to the vertebrate small intestine, as a simple model to uncover the rules that govern adaptive remodeling.
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Anthony Oro, MD, PhD
Eugene and Gloria Bauer Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab uses the skin to answer questions about epithelial stem cell biology, differentiation and carcinogenesis using genomics, genetics, and cell biological techniques. We have studied how hedgehog signaling regulates regeneration and skin cancer, and how tumors evolve to develop resistance. We study the mechanisms of early human skin development using human embryonic stem cells. These fundamentals studies provide a greater understanding of epithelial biology and novel disease therapeutics.
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Dmitri Petrov
Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEvolution of genomes and population genomics of adaptation and variation
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Jonathan Pollack
Professor of Pathology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch in the Pollack lab centers on translational genomics, with a focus on prostate diseases. The lab employs next-generation sequencing, single-cell and spatial genomics, gene editing, and human cell/tissue-based modeling to uncover disease mechanisms, biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Current areas of emphasis include benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostate cancer, and rare/neglected cancer types (ameloblastoma, liposarcoma).
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Matthew Porteus
Sutardja Chuk Professor of Definitive and Curative Medicine
BioDr. Porteus was raised in California and was a local graduate of Gunn High School before completing A.B. degree in “History and Science” at Harvard University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and wrote an thesis entitled “Safe or Dangerous Chimeras: The recombinant DNA controversy as a conflict between differing socially constructed interpretations of recombinant DNA technology.” He then returned to the area and completed his combined MD, PhD at Stanford Medical School with his PhD focused on understanding the molecular basis of mammalian forebrain development with his PhD thesis entitled “Isolation and Characterization of TES-1/DLX-2: A Novel Homeobox Gene Expressed During Mammalian Forebrain Development.” After completion of his dual degree program, he was an intern and resident in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and then completed his Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship in the combined Boston Chidlren’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute program. For his fellowship and post-doctoral research he worked with Dr. David Baltimore at MIT and CalTech where he began his studies in developing homologous recombination as a strategy to correct disease causing mutations in stem cells as definitive and curative therapy for children with genetic diseases of the blood, particularly sickle cell disease. Following his training with Dr. Baltimore, he took an independent faculty position at UT Southwestern in the Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry before again returning to Stanford in 2010 as an Associate Professor. During this time his work has been the first to demonstrate that gene correction could be achieved in human cells at frequencies that were high enough to potentially cure patients and is considered one of the pioneers and founders of the field of genome editing—a field that now encompasses thousands of labs and several new companies throughout the world. His research program continues to focus on developing genome editing by homologous recombination as curative therapy for children with genetic diseases but also has interests in the clonal dynamics of heterogeneous populations and the use of genome editing to better understand diseases that affect children including infant leukemias and genetic diseases that affect the muscle. Clinically, Dr. Porteus attends at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital where he takes care of pediatric patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
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Lei (Stanley) Qi
Associate Professor of Bioengineering
BioDr. Lei (Stanley) Qi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University, an Institute Scholar at Sarafan ChEM-H, and an Investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. He earned his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Tsinghua University and his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the Stanford faculty in 2014, Dr. Qi was a Systems Biology Fellow at UCSF.
Dr. Qi is a pioneer in the development of CRISPR technologies for precise genome and epigenome engineering. His lab created the first nuclease-deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) for targeted gene regulation, establishing the fields of CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and activation (CRISPRa). The Qi lab continues to expand this versatile toolbox, inventing new technologies for multiplexed transcriptome engineering (MEGA), 3D genome manipulation (CRISPR-GO), and live-cell imaging. Recent innovations include Live-FISH and Oligo-LiveFISH, a technology for capturing enhancer-promoter interactions in real-time, and the development of ultra-compact CRISPR systems, culminating in the clinical translation of CasMINI for neuromuscular diseases.
Leveraging this suite of bespoke technologies, Dr. Qi's group makes key discoveries at the intersection of synthetic biology, epigenetics, and medicine. His lab has illuminated the synergistic functions of enhancer elements in cancer, and by using transcriptome perturbation in T cells, has identified novel metabolic pathways that can be targeted to enhance tumor killing. A landmark achievement using CRISPR-TO to manipulate the spatial transcriptome in cortical neurons led to the discovery of novel RNA localization patterns that promote neuronal growth by 50%.
The Qi lab is currently focused on three major research frontiers:
1.Therapeutic epigenome editing: Developing next-generation epigenetic editors as novel therapeutics for modulating the immune system, treating brain disorders, and reversing hallmarks of aging.
2.Functional spatial transcriptomics: Unraveling the functional roles of spatial RNA organization in physiology and disease, and how its misregulation drives pathology.
3.Fundamental genome biology: Deploying advanced live-cell chromatin and RNA imaging and computational tools such as AI and machine learning to understand the first principles governing 3D genome regulation, transcription, and epigenetic memory. -
Stephen Quake
Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Bioengineering, of Applied Physics and, by courtesy, of Physics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSingle molecule biophysics, precision force measurement, micro and nano fabrication with soft materials, integrated microfluidics and large scale biological automation.
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Kacper Rogala
Assistant Professor of Structural Biology and of Chemical and Systems Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur team is fascinated by how cells make growth decisions — to grow or not to grow. In order to grow, cells require nutrients, and we are unraveling how cells use specialized protein sensors and transporters to sense and traffic nutrients in between various compartments. We use approaches from structural biology, chemical biology, biophysics, biochemistry, and cell biology — to reveal the mechanisms of basic biological processes, and we develop chemical probes that modulate them.
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Rajat Rohatgi
Professor of Biochemistry and of Medicine (Oncology)
Current Research and Scholarly Intereststhe overall goal of my laboratory is to uncover new regulatory mechanisms in signaling systems, to understand how these mechanisms are damaged in disease states, and to devise new strategies to repair their function.
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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.
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Julia Salzman
Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science, of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Statistics and of Biology
On Leave from 09/01/2025 To 06/01/2026Current Research and Scholarly Interestsstatistical computational biology focusing on splicing, cancer and microbes
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Serena Sanulli
Assistant Professor of Genetics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the organizing principles of the genome and how these principles regulate cell identity and developmental switches. We combine Biochemistry and Biophysical methods such as NMR and Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange-MS with Cell Biology, and Genetics to explore genome organization across length and time scales and understand how cells leverage the diverse biophysical properties of chromatin to regulate genome function.
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Jan Skotheim
Professor of Biology and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy overarching goal is to understand how cell growth triggers cell division. Linking growth to division is important because it allows cells to maintain specific size range to best perform their physiological functions. For example, red blood cells must be small enough to flow through small capillaries, whereas macrophages must be large enough to engulf pathogens. In addition to being important for normal cell and tissue physiology, the link between growth and division is misregulated in cancer.
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Aaron F. Straight
Pfeiffer and Herold Families Professor, Professor of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the biology of chromosomes. Our research is focused on understanding how chromosomal domains are specialized for unique functions in chromosome segregation, cell division and cell differentiation. We are particularly interested in the genetic and epigenetic processes that govern vertebrate centromere function, in the organization of the genome in the eukaryotic nucleus and in the roles of RNAs in the regulation of chromosome structure.
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Robert Tibshirani
Professor of Biomedical Data Science and of Statistics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research is in applied statistics and biostatistics. I specialize in computer-intensive methods for regression and classification, bootstrap, cross-validation and statistical inference, and signal and image analysis for medical diagnosis.
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Alice Ting
Professor of Genetics, of Biology and, by courtesy, of Chemistry
On Leave from 09/22/2025 To 06/10/2026Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe develop chemogenetic and optogenetic technologies for probing and manipulating protein networks, cellular RNA, and the function of mitochondria and the mammalian brain. Our technologies draw from protein engineering, directed evolution, computational design, chemical biology, organic synthesis, microscopy, and genomics.
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Natalie Torok
Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab is focused on exploring the role of matrix remodeling in disease progression in metabolic dysfunction steatohepatitis (MASH)-related hepatocellular carcinoma and primary sclerosing cholangitis. Our goal is to uncover how biomechanical characteristics of the ECM affect mechano-sensation, and how these pathways could ultimately be targeted. We are also interested in aging and its effects on metabolic pathways in MASH and HCC.
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Matt van de Rijn
Sabine Kohler, MD, Professor of Pathology, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research focuses on molecular analysis of human soft tissue tumors (sarcomas) with an emphasis on leiomyosarcoma and desmoid tumors. In addition we study the role of macrophages in range of malignant tumors.
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Irving Weissman
Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Professor of Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research, Professor of Pathology, and of Developmental Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsStem cell and cancer stem cell biology; development of T and B lymphocytes; cell-surface receptors for oncornaviruses in leukemia. Hematopoietic stem cells; Lymphocyte homing, lymphoma invasiveness and metastasis; order of events from hematopoietic stem cells [HSC] to AML leukemia stem cells and blood diseases, and parallels in other tissues; discovery of tumor and pathogenic cell 'don't eat me' and 'eat me' signals, and translation into therapeutics.
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Marius Wernig
Professor of Pathology and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology
On Partial Leave from 02/01/2025 To 01/31/2026Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEpigenetic Reprogramming, Direct conversion of fibroblasts into neurons, Pluripotent Stem Cells, Neural Differentiation: implications in development and regenerative medicine
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Monte Winslow
Associate Professor of Genetics and of Pathology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur laboratory uses genome-wide methods to uncover alterations that drive cancer progression and metastasis in genetically-engineered mouse models of human cancers. We combine cell-culture based mechanistic studies with our ability to alter pathways of interest during tumor progression in vivo to better understand each step of metastatic spread and to uncover the therapeutic vulnerabilities of advanced cancer cells.
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Albert J. Wong, M.D.
Professor of Neurosurgery
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur goal is to define targets for cancer therapeutics by identifying alterations in signal transduction proteins. We first identified a naturally occurring mutant EGF receptor (EGFRvIII) and then delineated its unique signal transduction pathway. This work led to the identification of Gab1 followed by the discovery that JNK is constitutively active in tumors. We intiated using altered proteins as the target for vaccination, where an EGFRvIII based vaccine appears to be highly effective.
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Joanna Wysocka
Lorry Lokey Professor and Professor of Developmental Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe precise and robust regulation of gene expression is a cornerstone for complex biological life. Research in our laboratory is focused on understanding how regulatory information encoded by the genome is integrated with the transcriptional machinery and chromatin context to allow for emergence of form and function during human embryogenesis and evolution, and how perturbations in this process lead to disease.
