Stanford University
Showing 2,001-2,050 of 7,810 Results
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Howard H Fenn MD
Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
BioCurrent CV available on request to
hhfenn@aol.com
CLINICAL:
Inpatient psychiatry attending at VA HCS Palo Alto for over 30 years.
Medical Director, Geriatric Psychiatry unit, VA HCSC Palo Alto/Menlo Park for 10 years
Outpatient psychiatrist at Palo Alto Medical foundation/Sutter for 15 years
CURRENT PUBLICATIONS:
Lead Editor, Inpatient Geriatric Psychiatry, Springer, 2019
LEGAL/FORENSIC:
Consultation practice on legal issues and court testimony for >40 years
Expert consultant/witness for Coleman vs. California Department of Corrections for 4 years
Qualified Medical Examiner (QME) for Division of Worker's Compensation for 15 years
Compensation and Pension Unit, VA HCS Palo Alto for 5 years
SEMINAR LEADER:
Psychiatric Issues in Cognitive Impairment -- Stanford/VA Alzheimer's Center (SVAAC)
Legal Aspects of Geriatric Psychiatry (Stanford/VA Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship
Didactic topics on inpatient psychiatry rotation for Stanford Geriatric Psychiatry fellows
EDUCATIONAL/ADMINISTRATIVE:
Program Director, Stanford/VA Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship, 3 years
Site Director, Inpatient Psychiatry Rotation/Geriatric Medicine Fellowship --6 years
SCHOLARSHIP:
Lead Editor of textbook, Inpatient Geriatric Psychiatry, published by Springer in 2019.
Slide presentations published by the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology (ASCP), editor Ira Glick, MD, entitled:
--Pharmacological Treatment of PTSD
--Behavioral and Psychological symptoms of Dementia
Chapters, review articles on topics of Medication management for Major Neurocognitive Disorder with Behavioral Disturbance
Chapter in Inpatient Geriatric Psychiatry, in On-Call Geriatric Psychiatry (2016), Springer.
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Shann Ray
Winter CSP Instructor
BioPoet and prose writer SHANN RAY teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University, poetry at Stanford, and poetry at Princeton Theological Seminary for the Center for Contemplative Leadership. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, through his research in forgiveness and genocide he has served as a visiting scholar in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and as a poetry mentor for the PEN America Prison and Justice Writers Program. Having collaborated with painter Makoto Fujimura on a United Nations grant entitled Intercultural Dialogues through Beauty as a Language of Peace, Ray’s work has also received the American Book Award in recognition of outstanding achievement in the context of America’s diverse literary community. Bread Loaf Fellow, three-time High Plains Book Award winner, Bakeless Prize winner, and winner of the Foreword Book of the Year Readers’ Choice Award, he is the author of a libretto and 15 books, of which 10 are fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction including Atomic Theory 7, The Garment of Praise, Forgiveness and Power in the Age of Atrocity, Balefire, American Masculine, Sweetclover, Blood Fire Vapor Smoke, American Copper, The Souls of Others, and Transparent in the Backlight. His work has been featured in Poetry, Esquire, Narrative, McSweeney’s, Prairie Schooner, Poetry International, Big Sky Journal, the American Journal of Poetry, and Salon.
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Caroline Ferguson
Social Science Research Scholar
BioCaroline E. Ferguson is an interdisciplinary social scientist focused on equity and justice at sea. www.ceferguson.com
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Jessica Ferguson Toll
Clinical Assistant Professor, Medicine - Infectious Diseases
BioDr. Ferguson is a board certified Infectious Disease specialist. She specializes in the treatment of immunocompromised patients, including patients who have undergone bone marrow or solid organ transplantation and patients with hematologic or solid malignancies on chemotherapy.
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Anne Fernald
Josephine Knotts Knowles Professor of Human Biology, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWorking with English- and Spanish-learning children from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, our research examines the importance of early language experience in supporting language development. We are deeply involved in community-based research in San Jose, designing an innovative parent-engagement program for low-resource Latino families with young children. We are also conducting field studies of beliefs about child development and caregiver-child interaction in rural villages in Senegal. A central goal of this translational research is to help parents understand their vital role in facilitating children’s language and cognitive growth.
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Russell D. Fernald
Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Human Biology, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsIn the course of evolution,two of the strongest selective forces in nature,light and sex, have left their mark on living organisms. I am interested in how the development and function of the nervous system reflects these events. We use the reproductive system to understand how social behavior influences the main system of reproductive action controlled by a collection of cells in the brain containing gonodotropin releasing hormone(GnRH)
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Daniel Fernandez
Director of Crystallography
BioSome say that proteins are spaghetti-like and wiggly. I use X-rays, crystals, and crystallography to "see" the atoms that make up things like spaghetti.
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Nielsen Fernandez-Becker
Clinical Professor, Medicine - Gastroenterology & Hepatology
BioI am the director of the Celiac Disease Program at Stanford and I am highly experienced in diagnosis and management of celiac disease and gluten associated disorders.
My objective is to provide excellent and compassionate clinical care for my patients while seeking a better understanding of diseases I treat, particularly Celiac disease (CeD), eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). My top priorities are patient care and translational research to make new discoveries and improve the care my patients. -
Marcelo Fernandez Vina
Professor of Pathology
On Leave from 03/02/2026 To 06/10/2026BioMarcelo Fernández-Viña, Ph.D., D (ABHI) is a Professor for the Department of Pathology at Stanford University Medical School and serves as Director of the Histocompatibility, Immunogenetics and Disease Profiling Laboratory at this institution. He has been working in the fields of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics since 1982. He earned a degree in Biochemistry from the School of Basic Sciences in Rosario, Argentina, and his Ph.D. in Internal Medicine from the University of Buenos Aires Medical School in Argentina. Previously he held a position as a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He has more than 180 peer reviewed publications, many of them focusing on HLA variation in multiple world populations, identifying susceptibility and resistance factors for diseases and in the impact of HLA mismatches in allogeneic transplantation; and 59 book chapters. He served as expert Consultant for Donor Searches for NMDP and as President Elect, President and Past President of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. He served as a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee for the United Network for Organ Sharing. He served as Co-Chair of the Immunobiology Committee of the CIBMTR; He also served as a member of the HHS Advisory Council on Blood Stem Cell Transplantation (ACBSCT).He serves as HLA Expert Consultant for the NMDP for the HRSA contract and is a member of the Histocompatibility Advisory Group for NMDP. He is Councilor of the International Histocompatibility Workshop and a member of the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System and was Chairman of the (17th) International HLA & Immunogenetics Workshop, and Past President of the International HLA & Immunogenetics Workshop.
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Juan Carlos Fernandez-Miranda, MD, FACS
Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS)
BioDr. Juan Fernandez-Miranda is Professor of Neurosurgery and Surgical Director of the Stanford Brain Tumor, Skull Base, and Pituitary Centers. He is internationally renowned for his expertise in minimally invasive brain surgery, endoscopic skull base and pituitary surgery, open skull base surgery, and complex brain tumor surgery. He has performed nearly 3,000 cranial operations including over 1,500 endoscopic endonasal operations for pituitary tumors and other skull base lesions. He is highly regarded for his innovative contributions to the development and refinement of endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery, for his ability to select the most effective and less invasive approach to each individual patient, and for his precise knowledge of the intricate anatomy of the white matter tracts required to maximize resection and minimize morbidity on high and low grade glioma patients. He has been recently ranked by Expertscape as World-Expert (top 0.05%) on Skull Base Surgery and #1 Neurosurgeon Expert on Skull Base Tumors (pituitary adenomas, meningiomas, craniopharyngiomas, chordomas, chondrosarcomas, schwannomas and esthesioneuroblastomas) on the US Pacific Region. He is co-founder and vice-president of the International Rhoton Society and executive member of the Board of Directors of the The Neurosurgical Atlas, the largest nonprofit organization for neurosurgical education and research in the world.
Dr. Fernandez-Miranda completed neurosurgery residency at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, Spain. Upon completion of his residency, he was awarded the Sanitas Prize to the best medical postgraduate trainee in the country. From 2005 to 2007, he underwent fellowship training in microsurgical neuroanatomy at the University of Florida under legendary neurosurgeon Albert L. Rhoton, Jr. From 2007 to 2010 he continued subspecialty clinical training in cerebrovascular surgery at the University of Virginia, and endoscopic endonasal and open skull base surgery at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). During his 10-year tenure at UPMC, he pioneered endoscopic endonasal approaches to highly complex pituitary and skull base tumors, developed a world-class complex brain surgery program, and led a premier training and research program on surgical neuroanatomy and skull base surgery.
In 2018, he was recruited to bring to Stanford his unique technical expertise and to collaborate with world-renowned Stanford colleagues across multiple disciplines, leading the establishment of one of the most preeminent centers worldwide for comprehensive treatment of complex lesions in the brain, skull base, and pituitary regions. His top priority is to provide gentle, accurate, and safe surgery, in a team-based and compassionate approach to patient care. -
Sebastian Fernandez-Pol
Clinical Associate Professor, Pathology
BioDr. Sebastian Fernandez-Pol is an academic hematopathologist with fellowship training in hematopathology and dermatopathology. He has a particular interest in improving diagnostic accuracy for cutaneous lymphoproliferative disorders. Dr. Fernandez-Pol received his B.A. in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry from the Washington University in St. Louis in 2003, his MD and PhD from Northwestern University in 2013, and completed his anatomic pathology and clinical pathology residency, hematopathology fellowship, and dermatopathology fellowship at Stanford University in 2019.
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Brian Ferneyhough
The William H. Bonsall Professor in Music, Emeritus
BioStudies with Ton de Leeuw, Amsterdam Conservatory, and Klaus Huber, Basel Conservatory.
Awards: Mendelssohn Scholarship, 1968; Lady Holland Composition Award, Royal Academy of Music, 1967; Grand Prix du Disque, 1978 and 1982; Gaudeamus Music Week Prizes 1969 and 1970; Composition Stipend, City of Basle, 1969-71; Koussevitsky Prize 1978; Composition Stipend of Southwest German Radio, 1974-5; Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres, Paris 1984; Associate Royal Academy of Music, 1990; Royal Philharmonic Award for Chamber Music Composition, 1996; Fellow, Birmingham Conservatoire, 1995; Elected Member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1996; Fellow, Royal Academy of Music, 1998; Elected Corresponding Member of the Bayrische Akademie der Schönen Künste 2005.
Activities: member of International Jury ISCM, 1980 (Finland) and 1988 (Hong Kong); member jury Gaudeamus Composition Competition 1983; member of International Reading Panel, IRCAM, 1993 & 1999; member of Kranichsteiner Preis Jury, Darmstadt, 1978-96; member of board, Perspectives of New Music 1995-present.
Compositions featured throughout the world and at all the major European festivals of contemporary music. Compositions include: Fourth String Quartet, Bone Alphabet, Terrain, Allgebrah, Incipits, Unsichtbare Farben, String Trio. His opera Shadowtime was premiered as part of the Munich Biennale 2004, and has been taken to Paris, New York, Bochum and London 2004-5. In 2006, it was staged in Stockholm, Sweden. In October 2006, his orchestral piece Plötzlichkeit was premiered at the Donaueschingen Festival, Germany. His Fifth String Quartet was premiered in Witten and later played in the Aldeburgh and Salzburg Festivals.
Publications: Collected Writings, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1998; POETIK, and various articles and interviews. -
Katherine Ferrara
Professor of Radiology (Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy focus is image-guided drug and gene delivery and I am engaged in the design of imaging devices, molecularly-targeted imaging probes and engineered delivery vehicles, drawing upon my education in biology and imaging physics and more than 20 years of experience with the synthesis and labeling of therapeutic particles. My laboratory has unique resources for and substantial experience in synthetic chemistry and ultrasound, CT, MR and PET imaging.
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James Ferrell
Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Biochemistry
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab has two main goals: to understand the regulation of mitosis and to understand the systems-level logic of simple signaling circuits. We often make use of Xenopus laevis oocytes, eggs, and cell-free extracts for both sorts of study. We also carry out single-cell fluorescence imaging studies on mammalian cell lines. Our experimental work is complemented by computational and theoretical studies aimed at understanding the design principles and recurring themes of regulatory circuits.
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Margaret S. Ferris, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Adult Neurology
Clinical Assistant Professor (By courtesy), NeurosurgeryBioDr. Ferris is a fellowship-trained neurologist and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, Division of Movement Disorders.
She diagnoses and treats a breath of movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. She recognizes the broad effects of these conditions on daily living and aims to develop personalized, comprehensive treatment plans that optimize health and quality of life.
Dr. Ferris research interests focus on access to interventional therapies for movement disorders. She has participated in investigations sponsored by the National Institutes of to evaluate advanced treatments for complications of Parkinson’s disease.
She has co-authored articles in publications such as Nature, The Neurohospitalist, and BioMed Central (BMC) Genomics. She has presented her insights about innovations in the understanding, detection, and management of movement disorders at conferences including, the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Pan American Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Congress.
She is a member of the American Academy of Neurology and the Movement Disorder Society.
Essential tremor patient story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV6BzyU9b3c -
Wendy E Feuer
U.S. Cultural Policy Fellow
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOral History Project Recordings and Transcripts: Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Programs 1981 and 1987 at the New York Public Library Special Collections.
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Dorien Feyaerts
Instructor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBiomedical scientist and immunologist with a strong background in fetal-maternal immunology that aims to conduct impactful translational research in women’s health to improve the health of mothers and their children.
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Chris Field
Melvin and Joan Lane Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Director, Woods Institute for the Environment & Professor of Earth System Science, of Biology and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute and at the Precourt Institute
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
My field is climate-change science, and my research emphasizes human-ecological interactions across many disciplines. Most studies include aspects of ecology, but also aspects of law, sociology, medicine, or engineering. -
Vikram Fielding-Singh, MD, JD, MS
Clinical Associate Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsImproving perioperative care of patients with end stage kidney disease, using biomarkers to aid early diagnosis of acute kidney injury, and evaluating the performance of risk prediction models in perioperative medicine.
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Richard Fikes
Professor (Research) of Computer Science, Emeritus
BioRichard Fikes has a long and distinguished record as an innovative leader in the development of techniques for effectively representing and using knowledge in computer systems. He is best known as co-developer of the STRIPS automatic planning system, KIF (Knowledge Interchange Format), the Ontolingua ontology representation language and Web-based ontology development environment, the OKBC (Open Knowledge Base Connectivity) API for knowledge servers, and IntelliCorp's KEE system. At Stanford, he led projects focused on developing large-scale distributed repositories of computer-interpretable knowledge, collaborative development of multi-use ontologies, enabling technology for the Semantic Web, reasoning methods applicable to large-scale knowledge bases, and knowledge-based technology for intelligence analysts. He was principal investigator of major projects for multiple Federal Government agencies including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Intelligence Community’s Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA).
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Paula Findlen
Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of Italian History and Professor, by courtesy, of French and Italian
BioI have taught the early history of science and medicine for many years on the premise that one of the most important ways to understand how science, medicine and technology have become so central to contemporary society comes from examining the process by which scientific knowledge emerged. I also take enormous pleasure in examining a kind of scientific knowledge that did not have an autonomous existence from other kinds of creative endeavors, but emerged in the context of humanistic approaches to the world (in defiance of C.P. Snow's claim that the modern world is one of "two cultures" that share very little in common). More generally, I am profoundly attracted to individuals in the past who aspired to know everything. It still seems like a worthy goal.
My other principal interest lies in understanding the world of the Renaissance, with a particular focus on Italy. I continue to be fascinated by a society that made politics, economics and culture so important to its self-definition, and that obviously succeeded in all these endeavors for some time, as the legacy of such figures as Machiavelli and Leonardo suggests. Renaissance Italy, in short, is a historical laboratory for understanding the possibilities and the problems of an innovative society. As such, it provides an interesting point of comparison to Gilded Age America, where magnates such as J.P. Morgan often described themselves as the "new Medici," and to other historical moments when politics, art and society combined fruitfully.
Finally, I have a certain interest in the relations between gender, culture and knowledge. Virginia Woolf rightfully observed at the beginning of the twentieth century that one could go to a library and find a great deal about women but very little that celebrated or supported their accomplishments. This is no longer true a century later, in large part thanks to the efforts of many scholars, male and female, who have made the work of historical women available to modern readers and who have begun to look at relations between the sexes in more sophisticated ways. Our own debates and disagreements on such issues make this subject all the more important to understand. -
Andrey Finegersh, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS)
BioDr. Finegersh is a fellowship-trained head and neck surgical oncologist with board certification in otolaryngology and an Assistant Professor with the Stanford School of Medicine Department of Otolaryngology.
He specializes in treatment of benign and malignant tumors of the head and neck and has received additional training in microvascular reconstruction and transoral robotic surgery. He takes tremendous pride in providing compassionate care for patients and managing challenging diagnoses.
Dr. Finegersh completed his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's combined Medical Scientist Training Program. He went on to complete residency in otolaryngology at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and his fellowship at Stanford University, where he stayed on as faculty.
He has extensive research experience in head and neck cancer epigenetics and completed post-doctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh and UCSD. He has received grants from the NIH and American Academy of Otolaryngology and has an active research lab studying molecular mechanisms of cancer. Dr. Finegersh has additional clinical interests in studying the role of minimally invasive surgery to improve outcomes for head and neck cancer patients. -
Thomas Fingar
Lecturer
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsChinese domestic and foreign policy, US-China relations, US foreign policy, intelligence analysis, mega-trends and global challenges, geopolitical consequences of climate change
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Anna Finley Caulfield, MD
Clinical Professor, Adult Neurology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Finley joined the Stanford Stroke Center in 2004 from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She cares for acute stroke patients and other neurologically critical ill patients in the intensive care unit. Currently, her research interests include hypothermia after cardiac arrest and comparing health care provider's predications of future neurological function in neurologically critical ill patients to their 6-month outcome.
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Chelsea Finn
Assistant Professor of Computer Science and of Electrical Engineering
BioChelsea Finn is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and the William George and Ida Mary Hoover Faculty Fellow. Professor Finn's research interests lie in the ability to enable robots and other agents to develop broadly intelligent behavior through learning and interaction. Her work lies at the intersection of machine learning and robotic control, including topics such as end-to-end learning of visual perception and robotic manipulation skills, deep reinforcement learning of general skills from autonomously collected data, and meta-learning algorithms that can enable fast learning of new concepts and behaviors. Professor Finn received her Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and her PhD in Computer Science at UC Berkeley. Her research has been recognized through the ACM doctoral dissertation award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the MIT Technology Review 35 under 35 list, and her work has been covered by various media outlets, including the New York Times, Wired, and Bloomberg. Throughout her career, she has sought to increase the representation of underrepresented minorities within CS and AI by developing an AI outreach camp at Berkeley for underprivileged high school students, a mentoring program for underrepresented undergraduates across three universities, and leading efforts within the WiML and Berkeley WiCSE communities of women researchers.
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Katie Fiocca
COLLEGE Lecturer
BioKatie received a PhD in Biology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, researching social insect nutritional physiology and chemical ecology. Additionally she earned a graduate minor in Undergraduate STEM Education through the Drexel Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence.
She began her work at Stanford as an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Biology Department, working to better understand the relationship between poison frog prey selection and their toxic ant diet. During her position, she also worked to broaden the participation of diverse identities in science, focusing on partnering with the local Bay Area community, including both students and high school teachers.
Currently, she is a COLLEGE Lecturer in Civic, Liberal, and Global Education with Stanford Introductory Studies. -
David Fiorentino, MD, PhD
Professor of Dermatology
On Partial Leave from 04/01/2026 To 04/30/2026Current Research and Scholarly InterestsFrom a clinical standpoint, I am particularly focused in the care of patients with myositis or systemic sclerosis. We offer clinical trials, including novel, cutting-edge cellular-based (e.g. chimeric antigen receptor, or, CAR T) therapies for these diseases. We are particularly interested in understanding the role of auto antigens in providing windows into disease pathogenesis, as well as their potential direct role of autoantibodies in causing disease.
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Morris P. Fiorina
Wendt Family Professor and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
BioMorris P. Fiorina is the Wendt Family Professor of Political Science and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution. He received an undergraduate degree from Allegheny College and a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester, and taught at Caltech and Harvard before joining Stanford in 1998. Fiorina has written widely on American politics, with special emphasis on the study of representation, public opinion and elections. He has published numerous articles and written or edited thirteen books, including: Representatives, Roll Calls, and Constituencies; Congress--Keystone of the Washington Establishment; Retrospective Voting in American National Elections; The Personal Vote (coauthored with Bruce Cain and John Ferejohn); Divided Government; Civic Engagement in American Democracy (co-edited with Theda Skocpol), Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (with Samuel Abrams and Jeremy Pope), Disconnect: The Breakdown of Representation in American Politics (with Samuel Abrams), Can We Talk: The Rise of Rude, Nasty, Stubborn Politics (co-edited with Dan Shea) and most recently, Unstable Majorities. Fiorina has served on the editorial boards of a dozen journals in Political Science, Political Economy, Law, and Public Policy, and from 1986-1990 served as Chairman of the Board of Overseers of the American National Election Studies. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He has received Career Achievement Awards from the American Political Science Association’s Organized Sections on Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior, and Political Organizations and Parties.
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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 InterestsWhile chromosomal inheritance provides cells with one means for keeping and transmitting genetic information, numerous other mechanisms have (and remain to be) discovered. We study novel cellular mechanisms that enforce genetic constancy and permit genetic change. Underlying our studies are questions of the diversity of inheritance mechanisms, how cells distinguish such mechanisms as "wanted" versus "unwanted", and of the consequences and applications of such mechanisms in health and disease.
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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. -
Michael Fischbein
Thelma and Henry Doelger Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular and genetic mechanisms of aortic aneurysm/dissection development. Molecular mechanisms of aneurysm formation in Marfan Syndrome. Clinical research interests include thoracic aortic diseases (aneurysms, dissections).
