Stanford University
Showing 101-110 of 2,438 Results
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Steven Banik
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
BioSteven Banik’s research interests center on rewiring mammalian biology and chemical biotechnology development using molecular design and construction. Projects in the Banik lab combine chemical biology, organic chemistry, protein engineering, cell and molecular biology to precisely manipulate the biological machines present in mammalian cells. Projects broadly aim to perform new functions that shed light on regulatory machinery and the potential scope of mammalian biology. A particular focus is the study of biological mechanisms that can be coopted by synthetic molecules (both small molecules and proteins). These concepts are applied to develop new therapeutic strategies for treating aging-related disorders, genetic diseases, and cancer.
Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, Steven was a NIH and Burroughs CASI postdoctoral fellow advised by Prof. Carolyn Bertozzi at Stanford. His postdoctoral research developed approaches for targeted protein degradation from the extracellular space with lysosome targeting chimeras (LYTACs). He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2016, where he worked with Prof. Eric Jacobsen on synthetic methods for the selective, catalytic difluorination of organic molecules and new approaches for generating and controlling reactive cationic intermediates in asymmetric catalysis. -
Matei Banu, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurosurgery
BioDr. Matei Banu is a fellowship-trained neurosurgeon at Stanford Health Care. He is also a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. Banu specializes in treating brain, skull base, and pituitary tumors. He also specializes in the management of the buildup of brain fluid (hydrocephalus) and related conditions. He is skilled in minimally invasive techniques, such as microscopic surgery (using microscopes and tiny instruments to repair small structures) and endoscopic techniques (using a thin, flexible tube to take pictures inside the body).
Dr. Banu often collaborates with rhinologists (doctors who diagnose and treat diseases of the nose and sinuses), head and neck surgeons, and otologists (doctors who diagnose and treat ear-related conditions). His goals are ensuring each patient receives comprehensive care and providing precise, compassionate treatment that enhances each patient’s quality of life.
His research interests include developing personalized treatment strategies for brain and skull base cancers. Dr. Banu is exploring how aggressive tumors grow, resist treatment, and evade the immune system. Using tumor samples from patients, Dr. Banu and his team are testing novel drugs to create more effective therapies.
Dr. Banu has published his research in several peer-reviewed journals, including Lancet Oncology, Cell, Nature Cell Biology, and Nature Communications. He has also contributed book chapters on topics like pediatric endoscopic skull base surgery and drug delivery for brain tumors. He has shared his findings at numerous national and international meetings in neurosurgery and oncology.
Dr. Banu is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the North American Skull Base Society, and the Society for Neuro-Oncology. -
Zhenan Bao
K. K. Lee Professor, Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy and Professor, by courtesy, of Materials Science and Engineering, of Chemistry, and of Bioengineering
BioZhenan Bao joined Stanford University in 2004. She is currently a K.K. Lee Professor in Chemical Engineering, and with courtesy appointments in Chemistry, Bioengineering and Material Science and Engineering. She was the Department Chair of Chemical Engineering from 2018-2022 and in 2025. She founded the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative (eWEAR) and is the current faculty director. Bao received her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from The University of Chicago in 1995 and joined Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies. She became a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 2001. Professor Bao currently has more than 800 refereed publications and more than 80 US patents with a Google Scholar H-index 237.
Bao is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. Bao was elected a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Science in 2021. She is a Fellow of AAAS, ACS, MRS, SPIE, ACS POLY and ACS PMSE.
Bao is a member of the Board of Directors for the Camille and Dreyfus Foundation from 2022. She served as a member of Executive Board of Directors for the Materials Research Society and Executive Committee Member for the Polymer Materials Science and Engineering division of the American Chemical Society. She co-founded C3 Nano Co. (acquired by Du Pont) and PyrAmes, which have produced products used in commercial smartphones and hospitals, respectively. Multiple inventions from her lab have been licensed and served as foundational technologies for several additional start-ups.
Bao was a recipient of the VinFuture Prize Female Innovator 2022, ACS Award of Chemistry of Materials 2022, MRS Mid-Career Award in 2021, AICHE Alpha Chi Sigma Award 2021, ACS Central Science Disruptor and Innovator Prize in 2020, ACS Gibbs Medal in 2020, the Wilhelm Exner Medal from the Austrian Federal Minister of Science in 2018, the L'Oreal UNESCO Women in Science Award North America Laureate in 2017. She was awarded the ACS Applied Polymer Science Award in 2017, ACS Creative Polymer Chemistry Award in 2013 ACS Cope Scholar Award in 2011. She is a recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby Medal and Prize in 2009, IUPAC Creativity in Applied Polymer Science Prize in 2008.
In Stanford, Bao has pioneered molecular design concepts and fabrication processes to advance the scope and applications of skin-inspired electronics. Her group discovered nano confinement effect of conjugated polymers in polymer blends, which established the fundamental foundation for skin-inspired electronic materials and devices. Her work has resulted in new materials and device solutions for soft robotics, wearable and implantable electronics for precision health, precision mental health and advanced tools for understanding neuroscience and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Building on chemical insights, her group has developed foundational materials and devices that enabled a new generation of skin-inspired soft electronics. They provide unprecedented opportunities for understanding human health through developing monitoring, diagnosis and treatment tools. Some examples include: a neuromorphic e-skin that can sense force and temperature and directly communicate with brain, a wireless wound healing patch, a soft NeuroString for simultaneous neurochemical monitoring in the brain and gut, soft high-density electrophysiological recording array, a meta-learned skin sensor for detailed body movements, a reconfigurable self-healing electronic skin. -
Maria Barna
Associate Professor of Genetics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab studies how intricate control of gene expression and cell signaling is regulated on a minute-by-minute basis to give rise to the remarkable diversity of cell types and tissue morphology that form the living blueprints of developing organisms. Work in the Barna lab is presently split into two main research efforts. The first is investigating ribosome-mediated control of gene expression genome-wide in space and time during cellular differentiation and organismal development. This research is opening a new field of study in which we apply sophisticated mass spectrometry, computational biology, genomics, and developmental genetics, to characterize a ribosome code to gene expression. Our research has shown that not all of the millions of ribosomes within a cell are the same and that ribosome heterogeneity can diversify how genomes are translated into proteomes. In particular, we seek to address whether fundamental aspects of gene regulation are controlled by ribosomes harboring a unique activity or composition that are tuned to translating specific transcripts by virtue of RNA regulatory elements embedded within their 5’UTRs. The second research effort is centered on employing state-of-the-art live cell imaging to visualize cell signaling and cellular control of organogenesis. This research has led to the realization of a novel means of cell-cell communication dependent on a dense network of actin-based cellular extension within developing organs that interconnect and facilitate the precise transmission of molecular information between cells. We apply and create bioengineering tools to manipulate such cellular interactions and signaling in-vivo.
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Christopher O. Barnes
Assistant Professor of Biology and, by courtesy, of Structural Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch in our lab is aimed at defining the structural correlates of broad and potent antibody-mediated neutralization of viruses. We combine biophysical and structural methods (e.g., cryo-EM), protein engineering, and in vivo approaches to understand how enveloped viruses infect host cells and elicit antigen-specific immune responses. We are particularly interested in the co-evolution of HIV-1 and broadly-neutralizing IgG antibodies (bNAbs), which may hold the key to the development of an effective HIV-1 vaccine. In addition, we are investigating antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 and related zoonotic coronaviruses (CoV), with the related goal of developing broadly-protective immunotherapies and vaccines against variants of concern and emerging CoV threats.
HIV-1; SARS-CoV-2; coronaviruses; cryo-EM; crystallography; vaccines; directed evolution
