Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance
Showing 221-240 of 347 Results
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Dáibhid Ó Maoiléidigh, PhD
Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Ó Maoiléidigh group employs mathematical and computational approaches to better understand normal hearing and hearing impairment. Because complete restoration of auditory function by artificial devices or regenerative treatments will only be possible when experiments and computational modeling align, we work closely with experimental laboratories. Our goal is to understand contemporary experimental observations, to make experimentally testable predictions, and to motivate new experiments. We are pursuing several projects.
Hair-Bundle Mechanics
Auditory and balance organs rely on hair cells to convert mechanical vibrations into electrical signals for transmission to the brain. In response to the quietest sounds we can hear, the hair cell's mechanical sensor, the hair bundle, moves by less than one-billionth of a meter. To determine how this astounding sensitivity is possible, we construct computational models of hair-bundle mechanics. By comparing models with experimental observations, we are learning how a hair bundle's geometry, material properties, and ability to move spontaneously determine its function.
Cochlear Mechanics
The cochlea contains the auditory organ that houses the sensory hair cells in mammals. Vibrations in the cochlea arising from sound are amplified more than a thousandfold by the ear's active process. New experimental techniques have additionally revealed that the cochlea vibrates in a complex manner in response to sound. We use computational models to interpret these observations and to make hypotheses about how the cochlea works. -
Johanna O'Day
Scientific Program Manager - Education and Communications
BioI believe in using human-centered design and bioengineering to improve health. I have developed open-source tools that use wearables to better understand and improve mobility. I am passionate about building empathetic communities equipped with the skills and knowledge to make our world healthier, smarter, and more collaborative.
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Jelena Obradović
Professor of Education
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAdaptation, resilience, and developmental psychopathology of disadvantaged children populations; Stress reactivity and biological sensitivity to contextual influences; Executive function and self-regulatory abilities; Effects of risk, adversity, and social status on children’s development.
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Michelle Odden
Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMultilevel - from cells to society - epidemiologic study of healthy aging
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Allison Okamura
Richard W. Weiland Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on developing the principles and tools needed to realize advanced robotic and human-machine systems capable of physical interaction. Application areas include surgery, simulation and training, rehabilitation, prosthetics, neuromechanics, exploration of hazardous and remote environments (e.g. space), design, and education.
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Marily Oppezzo
Senior Research Scholar, Medicine - Med/Stanford Prevention Research Center
BioDr. Oppezzo is an Instructor of Medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and head of the nutrition pillar at Stanford Lifestyle Medicine. She is a behavioral and learning scientist, dietitian, and exercise science interventionist. She earned her PhD in Educational Psychology from Stanford University, and holds a Master’s degree in Nutritional Science, and is board certified Lifestyle Medicine Professional.
Dr. Oppezzo's work combines her extensive training in nutrition, exercise science, and behavioral science to develop innovative interventions that empower individuals to adopt sustainable, healthy habits - integrating them into their already busy lives. With a focus on "minimal dose, maximal gains" she explores the best ways for people to adopt small, actionable changes for significant improvements in health and well-being. She is particularly interested in the impact of "exercise snacks"—short, accessible bouts of physical activity—on productivity, mood, and overall health. One of her key interventions, "Stronger," is designed to provide peri- and post-menopausal women with effective strength training that maximizes benefits while minimizing time commitment. -
Lars Osterberg, MD, MPH
Lecturer, Medicine - Primary Care and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBarriers to Humanism
Collaborative Faculty Development in Improving Humanism and Professionalism
Using Radiofrequency Identificaton technology to improve medication adherence
Impact of Learning Communities on Medical Education -
Danielle Mari Panelli
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Maternal Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics)
BioDr. Danielle Panelli, MD, MS is an Assistant Professor in Maternal–Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed Ob/Gyn residency training at Harvard (Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Mass General Hospital), and both fellowship training in Maternal–Fetal Medicine and a Masters Degree in Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Stanford.
Dr. Panelli is a clinician–scientist whose work bridges clinical and translational research to understand how stress and mental health shape pregnancy outcomes and postpartum recovery. Her research program focuses on psychobiologic markers of stress—including telomere dynamics and epigenetic aging—to advance precision medicine approaches for perinatal mental illness and pregnancy complications.
Clinically, she cares for routine and high-risk obstetric patients and integrates trauma-informed, evidence-based approaches into care delivery. She is committed to mentorship and education, serves as Director of Research for the Maternal–Fetal Medicine Fellowship, and contributes to national leadership and scholarship in perinatal mental health. -
Sergiu P. Pasca
Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Bonnie Uytengsu and Family Director of the Stanford Brain Organogenesis Program
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsA critical challenge in understanding the intricate programs underlying development, assembly and dysfunction of the human brain is the lack of direct access to intact, functioning human brain tissue for detailed investigation by imaging, recording, and stimulation.
To address this, we are developing bottom-up approaches to generate and assemble, from multi-cellular components, human neural circuits in vitro and in vivo.
We introduced the use of instructive signals for deriving from human pluripotent stem cells self-organizing 3D cellular structures named brain region-specific spheroids/organoids. We demonstrated that these cultures, such as the ones resembling the cerebral cortex, can be reliably derived across many lines and experiments, contain synaptically connected neurons and non-reactive astrocytes, and can be used to gain mechanistic insights into genetic and environmental brain disorders. Moreover, when maintained as long-term cultures, they recapitulate an intrinsic program of maturation that progresses towards postnatal stages.
We also pioneered a modular system to integrate 3D brain region-specific organoids and study human neuronal migration and neural circuit formation in functional preparations that we named assembloids. We have actively applied these models in combination with studies in long-term ex vivo brain preparations to acquire a deeper understanding of human physiology, evolution and disease mechanisms.
We have carved a unique research program that combines rigorous in vivo and in vitro neuroscience, stem cell and molecular biology approaches to construct and deconstruct previously inaccessible stages of human brain development and function in health and disease.
We believe science is a community effort, and accordingly, we have been advancing the field by broadly and openly sharing our technologies with numerous laboratories around the world and organizing the primary research conference and the training courses in the area of cellular models of the human brain. -
Michele Lanpher Patel
Instructor, Medicine - Stanford Prevention Research Center
BioMichele L. Patel, PhD is an Instructor in the Stanford Prevention Research Center at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Trained as a clinical health psychologist, Dr. Patel conducts research to optimize scalable digital health interventions for adults with obesity. She leads clinical trials that test innovative strategies to address the critical challenge of suboptimal engagement in digital interventions.
Dr. Patel's research is supported by an NIH career development award (K23; 2022-2027). Her recent Spark trial investigated the most potent combination of self-monitoring strategies in a behavioral weight loss intervention among 176 adults with overweight or obesity. Results are expected to be published in 2026.
She is also testing other strategies to promote engagement, weight loss, and health. This includes the impact of easier vs. harder goals, and the effect of high-frequency, low-friction behavioral strategies. Her work leverages the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) to systematically identify intervention strategies that maximize effectiveness while minimizing patient burden.
Dr. Patel received her PhD in clinical psychology from Duke University. She completed her clinical internship at the VA Palo Alto with a specialization in behavioral medicine, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship (T32) at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. She currently serves as the Chair of the Optimization of Behavioral and Biobehavioral Interventions special interest group in the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
Primary Research Interests:
-- Optimizing digital interventions for obesity treatment and prevention
-- Leveraging behavioral science to create lower-burden self-monitoring strategies to improve engagement and outcomes
-- Identifying psychosocial factors (including health literacy and self-efficacy) that influence treatment success
Methodological Expertise:
-- Randomized clinical trials, including factorial designs and embedded trials
-- Systematic reviews
-- Signal detection analysis -
Marco Perez
Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine)
BioDr. Marco Perez's research goal is to better understand the fundamental causes of cardiovascular disease through the study of genetics and epidemiology. His group studies the genetic variations and environmental exposures that are associated with conditions such as atrial fibrillation and heart failure. He has led the studies of atrial fibrillation in Women's Health Initiative, one of the largest nation-wide population-based cohorts. He is currently conducting a large study monitoring for silent or asymptomatic atrial fibrillation in women from the WHI randomized to exercise intervention, and was co-PI of the Apple Heart Study, a clinical trial that validated the ability of a smartwatch to detect atrial fibrillation. He is now PI of the Clinical Coordinating Center at Stanford for the REACT-AF which is a clinical trial to evaluate efficacy and safety of a "pill-in-the pocket" approach to anticoagulation for AF using a smartwatch. He is interested in understanding the paradox that atrial fibrillation is less common in African Americans and Hispanics, despite a greater burden of risk factors such as hypertension. As director of the Stanford Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic, he evaluates families with rare inherited arrhythmias associated with sudden death such as Long QT and Brugada Syndromes and explores their links with novel genes. He also studies the genetic causes of very early onset atrial fibrillation. He also studies how best to use the electrocardiogram and imaging modalities using Machine Learning techniques to identify patients at risk for cardiovascular disease. Dr. Perez receives funding from the NIH/NHLBI, Apple Inc., Janssen and the Colson Foundation.
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Suzanne Pfeffer
Emma Pfeiffer Merner Professor of Medical Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe major focus of our research is to understand the molecular basis of inherited Parkinson's Disease (PD). We focus on the LRRK2 kinase that is inappropriately activated in PD and how it phosphorylates Rab GTPases, blocking the formation of primary cilia in specific regions of the brain. The absence of primary cilia renders cells unable to carry out Hedgehog signaling that is critical for neuroprotective pathways that sustain dopamine neurons.
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Jennifer Pien MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
BioJennifer H. Pien is a Clinical Associate Professor through the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University. She is the Director of The Pegasus Physician Writers, Founder of The Pegasus Review, and is a founding faculty editor for the Oxford Review of Books x Stanford collaboration. She also serves on the Advisory Board for The Bellevue Literary Press and the Stanford School of Medicine Medical Humanities Fellowship. Jennifer is represented by Amy Collins of Talcott Notch. She is the author of Healing the Healers, Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming 2025 and is the Co-Founder of Hesperides Literary Agency.
In addition to her work in Medical Humanities, her interests include advocacy for adults with developmental disabilities where she cofounded Puente Clinic through the San Mateo County Medical System, an innovative dev. disabilities subspecialty clinic. She serves on the Regional Advisory Committee to the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities. Currently, her clinical focus is on physician well-being through the WellConnect team. -
Russell Poldrack
Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology and, by courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab uses the tools of cognitive neuroscience to understand how decision making, executive control, and learning and memory are implemented in the human brain. We also develop neuroinformatics tools and resources to help researchers make better sense of data.
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Ada Poon
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research focuses on providing theoretical foundations and engineering platforms for realizing electronics that seamlessly integrate with the body. Such systems will allow precise recording or modulation of physiological activity, for advancing basic scientific discovery and for restoring or augmenting biological functions for clinical applications.
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Lisa Post
Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
BioDr. Lisa Post, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression and adjustment disorders in adults. She has been a practicing clinician at Stanford Hospital and Clinics since 1993. Since 2000, she has been Director of a clinical program for Stanford Varsity Athletes and for nine years has been the Team Clinician for the San Francisco 49ers. Her primary interest are in the treatment of high performing individuals and in stress management.
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Manu Prakash
Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Oceans
BioWe use interdisciplinary approaches including theory and experiments to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. Examples include cognition in single cell protists and morphological computing in animals with no neurons and origins of complex behavior in multi-cellular systems. Broadly, we invent new tools for studying non-model organisms with significant focus on life in the ocean - addressing fundamental questions such as how do cells sense pressure or gravity? Finally, we are dedicated towards inventing and distributing “frugal science” tools to democratize access to science (previous inventions used worldwide: Foldscope, Abuzz), diagnostics of deadly diseases like malaria and convening global citizen science communities to tackle planetary scale environmental challenges such as mosquito surveillance or plankton surveillance by citizen sailors mapping the ocean in the age of Anthropocene.
