School of Medicine
Showing 11-20 of 47 Results
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Mark M. Davis
Director, Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection and the Burt and Marion Avery Family Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular mechanisms of lymphocyte recognition and differentiation; Systems immunology and human immunology; vaccination and infection.
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Edgar Engleman
Professor of Pathology and of Medicine (Immunology and Rheumatology)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDendritic cells, macrophages, NK cells and T cells; functional proteins and genes; immunotherapeutic approaches to cancer, autoimmune disease, neurodegenerative disease and metabolic disease.
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C. Garrison Fathman
Professor of Medicine (Immunology and Rheumatology), Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab of molecular and cellular immunology is interested in research in the general field of T cell activation and autoimmunity. We have identified and characterized a gene (GRAIL) that seems to control regulatory T cell (Treg) responsiveness by inhibiting the Treg IL-2 receptor desensitization. We have characterized a gene (Deaf1) that plays a major role in peripheral tolerance in T1D. Using PBC gene expression, we have provisionally identified a signature of risk and progression in T1D.
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Andrew Fire
George D. Smith Professor of Molecular and Genetic Medicine and Professor of Pathology and of Genetics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study natural cellular mechanisms for adapting to genetic change. These include systems activated during normal development and those for detecting and responding to foreign or unwanted genetic activity. Underlying these studies are questions of how a cells can distinguish information as "self" versus "nonself" or "wanted" versus "unwanted".
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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. -
Matthew Frank
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy)
BioDr. Matthew Frank, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at Stanford University. Dr. Frank predominantly cares for patients with high-risk lymphoma and other blood cancers. He is a lead investigator of clinical trials evaluating the safety and effectiveness of cancer treatments called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR ) T therapy for patients with lymphomas and leukemias. Dr. Frank’s research focuses on developing methods to identify patients who are at high risk for relapse or developing side-effects after receiving CAR T therapy and to understand why these relapses and side-effects occur.
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Stephen J. Galli, MD
Mary Hewitt Loveless, MD, Professor in the School of Medicine and Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe goals of Dr. Galli's laboratory are to understand the regulation of mast cell and basophil development and function, and to develop and use genetic approaches to elucidate the roles of these cells in health and disease. We study both the roles of mast cells, basophils, and IgE in normal physiology and host defense, e.g., in responses to parasites and in enhancing resistance to venoms, and also their roles in pathology, e.g., anaphylaxis, food allergy, and asthma, both in mice and humans.
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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.
