School of Medicine


Showing 61-73 of 73 Results

  • Sandy Srinivas

    Sandy Srinivas

    Professor of Medicine (Oncology) and, by courtesy, of Urology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsClinical interests: general oncology, genito-urinary malignancy Research interests: conducting clinical trials in advanced prostate cancer, bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma

  • James Swartz

    James Swartz

    James H. Clark Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering and of Bioengineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProgram Overview

    The world we enjoy, including the oxygen we breathe, has been beneficially created by biological systems. Consequently, we believe that innovative biotechnologies can also serve to help correct a natural world that non-natural technologies have pushed out of balance. We must work together to provide a sustainable world system capable of equitably improving the lives of over 10 billion people.
    Toward that objective, our program focuses on human health as well as planet health. To address particularly difficult challenges, we seek to synergistically combine: 1) the design and evolution of complex protein-based nanoparticles and enzymatic systems with 2) innovative, uniquely capable cell-free production technologies.
    To advance human health we focus on: a) achieving the 120 year-old dream of producing “magic bullets”; smart nanoparticles that deliver therapeutics or genetic therapies only to specific cells in our bodies; b) precisely designing and efficiently producing vaccines that mimic viruses to stimulate safe and protective immune responses; and c) providing a rapid point-of-care liquid biopsy that will count and harvest circulating tumor cells.
    To address planet health we are pursuing biotechnologies to: a) inexpensively use atmospheric CO2 to produce commodity biochemicals as the basis for a new carbon negative chemical industry, and b) mitigate the intermittency challenges of photovoltaic and wind produced electricity by producing hydrogen either from biomass sugars or directly from sunlight.
    More than 25 years ago, Professor Swartz began his pioneering work to develop cell-free biotechnologies. The new ability to precisely focus biological systems toward efficiently addressing new, “non-natural” objectives has proven tremendously useful as we seek to address the crucial and very difficult challenges listed above. Another critical feature of the program is the courage (or naivete) to approach important objectives that require the development and integration of several necessary-but- not-sufficient technology advances.

  • Jean Y. Tang MD PhD

    Jean Y. Tang MD PhD

    Professor of Dermatology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on 2 main areas:

    1. Skin cancer:
    - New therapeutics to treat and prevent non-melanoma skin cancer, especially by targeting the Hedgehog signaling pathway for BCC tumors
    - Genomic analysis of drug-resistant cancers
    - Identifying risk factors for skin cancer in the Women's Health Initiative

    2. Epidermolysis Bullosa: gene therapy and protein therapy to replace defective/absent Collagen 7 in children and adults with Recessive Dystrophic EB

  • Melinda L. Telli, M.D.

    Melinda L. Telli, M.D.

    Professor of Medicine (Oncology)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on the development of novel therapies for the treatment of triple-negative and hereditary cancer. Other areas of interest include prevention of cardiac damage associated with breast cancer treatment and cardiotoxicity of anti-cancer agents.

  • Reena Thomas, MD PhD

    Reena Thomas, MD PhD

    Clinical Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences
    Clinical Associate Professor (By courtesy), Neurosurgery

    Current Research and Scholarly Interests-Neuro Oncology Immunotherapy
    -Medical Education

  • Candice N. Thompson, MD

    Candice N. Thompson, MD

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Surgery - General Surgery
    Masters Student in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, admitted Autumn 2023

    BioDr. Thompson is a board-certified, fellowship-trained general surgeon who specializes in breast surgical oncology. She is a clinical assistant professor of surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Medical Director for the Office of Cancer Health Equity.

    Dr. Thompson clinical interests include treatment of women and men who have breast cancer, benign breast disease, genetic mutations, family history of breast cancer, or other breast cancer risk factors. Procedures performed by Dr. Thompson include lumpectomies (partial mastectomies) using oncoplastic techniques and hidden scar methods, skin- and nipple-sparing mastectomies, simple mastectomies with aesthetically flat closure, oncoplastic procedures, benign breast lesion excisions, axillary node dissections, and sentinel lymph node biopsies.

    She completed a breast surgical oncology fellowship at Stanford University under the mentorship of one of the world’s foremost experts in the field. She completed her general surgery training at Georgetown University, where she was the co-administrative chief resident. She is passionate about equitable care and addressing healthcare disparities, especially in breast cancer.

    Dr. Thompson works closely with medical oncology, radiation oncology, plastic surgery, genetics, and other breast cancer specialists in a multidisciplinary setting to provide high quality, evidence-based, and individualized care. Dr. Thompson is a strong advocate for patient education and empowerment and strives to deliver compassionate care to patients and their families.

    Her research has focused on Nipple Sparing Mastectomies, Community Engagement for Breast Cancer in the Black Community, Immune responses during breast cancer treatment, and prognostic role of Circulating Tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the management of breast cancer. She also has strong research interests in community engagement, health disparities, oncoplastic surgical options, and cancer biomarkers. She has delivered presentations on a wide range of topics related to breast cancer at national and regional meetings including NRG Oncology, ASBrS, ASC.

    For her scholarship and research achievements, Dr. Thompson has won numerous honors and awards. She has earned the resident teaching award during her chief year at Georgetown. She was awarded the Stanford Cancer Institute Clinical Innovation Fund Grant for her work in educating the Black Community about Breast Health and Breast Cancer (2022). She was also awarded the prestigious NCI Early-Surgeon Scientist Program (ESSP) Award to support her early career as a surgeon scientist(2024). She also serves on the AAS Academic Advancement Committee, NRG Oncology Surgical Oncology Committee, NCCN Breast Screening and Diagnosis Panel, and TOUCH Black Breast Advisor for Pink Table Talk.


    Dr. Thompson is a member of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS), Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO), Society of Black Academic Surgeons (SBAS), Association of Women Surgeons (AWS), National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), and American Medical Association (AMA).

    Outside of work, Dr. Thompson enjoys pilates, tennis, baking, sewing, wine tasting, and traveling.

  • Brendan C. Visser, MD

    Brendan C. Visser, MD

    Professor of Surgery (General Surgery)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Visser's research interests span the breath of his clinical practice. Areas of active research include the multidisciplinary treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine cancers, technical aspects of minimally invasive pancreatic and liver surgery, and trends in the management of hepatobiliary cancers in California, focusing on socioeconomic and instituional barriers to appropriate care.

  • Heather Wakelee

    Heather Wakelee

    Winston Chen and Phyllis Huang Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Wakelee's research is focused on clinical trials and translational efforts in patients with lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies such as thymoma and thymic carcinoma. Other interests include translation projects in thoracic malignancies and collaborations with population scientists regarding lung cancer questions.

  • Paul Wender

    Paul Wender

    Francis W. Bergstrom Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular imaging, therapeutics, drug delivery, drug mode of action, synthesis

  • Robert West

    Robert West

    Professor of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsRob West, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Pathology at Stanford University Medical Center. He is a clinician scientist with experience in translational genomics research to identify new prognostic and therapeutic markers in cancer. His research focus is on the progression of neoplasia to carcinoma. His lab has developed spatially oriented in situ methods to study archival specimens. He also serves as a surgical pathologist specializing in breast pathology.

  • Joy Wu

    Joy Wu

    Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy laboratory focuses on the pathways that regulate the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into the osteoblast and adipocyte lineages. We are also studying the role of osteoblasts in the hematopoietic and cancer niches in the bone marrow microenvironment.

  • Bo Yu, MD

    Bo Yu, MD

    Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Yu’s lab is interested in ovarian physiology and pathology, as well as assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

  • Richard Zare

    Richard Zare

    Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and Professor, by courtesy, of Physics
    On Leave from 10/01/2024 To 12/31/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research group is exploring a variety of topics that range from the basic understanding of chemical reaction dynamics to the nature of the chemical contents of single cells.

    Under thermal conditions nature seems to hide the details of how elementary reactions occur through a series of averages over reagent velocity, internal energy, impact parameter, and orientation. To discover the effects of these variables on reactivity, it is necessary to carry out studies of chemical reactions far from equilibrium in which the states of the reactants are more sharply restricted and can be varied in a controlled manner. My research group is attempting to meet this tough experimental challenge through a number of laser techniques that prepare reactants in specific quantum states and probe the quantum state distributions of the resulting products. It is our belief that such state-to-state information gives the deepest insight into the forces that operate in the breaking of old bonds and the making of new ones.

    Space does not permit a full description of these projects, and I earnestly invite correspondence. The following examples are representative:

    The simplest of all neutral bimolecular reactions is the exchange reaction H H2 -> H2 H. We are studying this system and various isotopic cousins using a tunable UV laser pulse to photodissociate HBr (DBr) and hence create fast H (D) atoms of known translational energy in the presence of H2 and/or D2 and using a laser multiphoton ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer to detect the nascent molecular products in a quantum-state-specific manner by means of an imaging technique. It is expected that these product state distributions will provide a key test of the adequacy of various advanced theoretical schemes for modeling this reaction.

    Analytical efforts involve the use of capillary zone electrophoresis, two-step laser desorption laser multiphoton ionization mass spectrometry, cavity ring-down spectroscopy, and Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometry. We believe these methods can revolutionize trace analysis, particularly of biomolecules in cells.