Sarafan ChEM-H


Showing 1-100 of 111 Results

  • Monther Abu-Remaileh

    Monther Abu-Remaileh

    Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the role of the lysosome in metabolic adaptation using subcellular omics approaches, functional genomics and innovative biochemical tools. We apply this knowledge to understand how lysosomal dysfunction leads to human diseases including neurodegeneration, cancer and metabolic syndrome.

  • Raag Airan

    Raag Airan

    Associate Professor of Radiology (Neuroimaging and Neurointervention) and, by courtesy, of Materials Science & Engineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur goal is to develop and clinically implement new technologies for high-precision and noninvasive intervention upon the nervous system. Every few millimeters of the brain is functionally distinct, and different parts of the brain may have counteracting responses to therapy. To better match our therapies to neuroscience, we develop techniques that allow intervention upon only the right part of the nervous system at the right time, using technologies like focused ultrasound and nanotechnology.

  • Justin P. Annes M.D., Ph.D.

    Justin P. Annes M.D., Ph.D.

    Associate Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe ANNES LABORATORY of Molecular Endocrinology: Leveraging Chemical Biology to Treat Endocrine Disorders

    DIABETES
    The prevalence of diabetes is increasing at a staggering rate. By the year 2050 an astounding 25% of Americans will be diabetic. The goal of my research is to uncover therapeutic strategies to stymie the ensuing diabetes epidemic. To achieve this goal we have developed a variety of innovate experimental approaches to uncover novel approaches to curing diabetes.

    (1) Beta-Cell Regeneration: Diabetes results from either an absolute or relative deficiency in insulin production. Our therapeutic strategy is to stimulate the regeneration of insulin-producing beta-cells to enhance an individual’s insulin secretion capacity. We have developed a unique high-throughput chemical screening platform which we use to identify small molecules that promote beta-cell growth. This work has led to the identification of key molecular pathways (therapeutic targets) and candidate drugs that promote the growth and regeneration of islet beta-cells. Our goal is to utilize these discoveries to treat and prevent diabetes.

    (2) The Metabolic Syndrome: A major cause of the diabetes epidemic is the rise in obesity which leads to a cluster of diabetes- and cardiovascular disease-related metabolic abnormalities that shorten life expectancy. These physiologic aberrations are collectively termed the Metabolic Syndrome (MS). My laboratory has developed an original in vivo screening platform t to identify novel hormones that influence the behaviors (excess caloric consumption, deficient exercise and disrupted sleep-wake cycles) and the metabolic abnormalities caused by obesity. We aim to manipulate these hormone levels to prevent the development and detrimental consequences of the MS.

    HEREDIATY PARAGAGLIOMA SYNDROME
    The Hereditary Paraganglioma Syndrome (hPGL) is a rare genetic cancer syndrome that is most commonly caused by a defect in mitochondrial metabolism. Our goal is to understand how altered cellular metabolism leads to the development of cancer. Although hPGL is uncommon, it serves as an excellent model for the abnormal metabolic behavior displayed by nearly all cancers. Our goal is to develop novel therapeutic strategies that target the abnormal behavior of cancer cells. In the laboratory we have developed hPGL mouse models and use high throughput chemical screening to identify the therapeutic susceptibilities that result from the abnormal metabolic behavior of cancer cells.

    As a physician scientist trained in clinical genetics I have developed expertise in hereditary endocrine disorders and devoted my efforts to treating families affected by the hPGL syndrome. By leveraging our laboratory expertise in the hPGL syndrome, our care for individuals who have inherited the hPGL syndrome is at the forefront of medicine. Our goal is to translate our laboratory discoveries to the treatment of affected families.

  • Eric Appel

    Eric Appel

    Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Pediatrics (Endocrinology) and of Bioengineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe underlying theme of the Appel Lab at Stanford University integrates concepts and approaches from supramolecular chemistry, natural/synthetic materials, and biology. We aim to develop supramolecular biomaterials that exploit a diverse design toolbox and take advantage of the beautiful synergism between physical properties, aesthetics, and low energy consumption typical of natural systems. Our vision is to use these materials to solve fundamental biological questions and to engineer advanced healthcare solutions.

  • Steven Banik

    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.

  • Zhenan Bao

    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.

  • Christopher O. Barnes

    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

  • Michael Bassik

    Michael Bassik

    Associate Professor of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are an interdisciplinary lab focused on two major areas:(1) we seek to understand mechanisms of cancer growth and drug resistance in order to find new therapeutic targets(2) we study mechanisms by which macrophages and other cells take up diverse materials by endocytosis and phagocytosis; these substrates range from bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells to drugs and protein toxins. To accomplish these goals, we develop and use new technologies for high-throughput functional genomics.

  • Carolyn Bertozzi

    Carolyn Bertozzi

    Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    BioCarolyn Bertozzi is the Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Radiology at Stanford University, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1988 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1993. After completing postdoctoral work at UCSF in the field of cellular immunology, she joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996. In June 2015, she joined the faculty at Stanford University and became the co-director and Institute Scholar at Sarafan ChEM-H.

    Prof. Bertozzi's research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of cell surface glycosylation pertinent to disease states. Her lab focuses on profiling changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and exploiting this information for development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in the area of immuno-oncology.

    Prof. Bertozzi has been recognized with many honors and awards for both her research and teaching accomplishments. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Some awards of note include the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Lemelson-MIT award for inventors, Whistler Award, Ernst Schering Prize, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, and Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award of the Protein Society. Her efforts in undergraduate education have earned her the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award and the Donald Sterling Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

  • Matthew Bogyo

    Matthew Bogyo

    Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab uses chemical, biochemical, and cell biological methods to study protease function in human disease. Projects include:

    1) Design and synthesis of novel chemical probes for serine and cysteine hydrolases.

    2) Understanding the role of hydrolases in bacterial pathogenesis and the human parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii.

    3) Defining the specific functional roles of proteases during the process of tumorogenesis.

    4) In vivo imaging of protease activity

  • Steven Boxer

    Steven Boxer

    Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPlease visit my website for complete information:
    http://www.stanford.edu/group/boxer/

  • Leah B. Bushin

    Leah B. Bushin

    Assistant Professor of Chemistry

    BioLeah Bushin is a chemical biologist and natural products chemist working at the interface of primary and secondary metabolism and leverages these insights to discover and produce novel natural products.

    The Bushin research group will investigate novel metabolic pathways, enzymes, and bioactive molecules across all kingdoms of life, intending to repurpose them to address challenges in human health and environmental sustainability. Current efforts will primarily center on developing strategies for the efficient microbial production of compounds and materials at scale, as well as high-throughput approaches for engineering enzymes to perform synthetic reactions. More broadly, as the group designs and refines bioproduction platforms, they hope to deepen their fundamental understanding of cellular metabolism. With genome sequencing revealing an immense reservoir of untapped biosynthetic potential, their work aims to uncover and harness nature’s chemical diversity for drug discovery and synthetic derivatization.

  • Jan Carette

    Jan Carette

    Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research focuses on the identification of host genes that play critical roles in the pathogenesis of infectious agents including viruses. We use CRISPR genetic screens in human cells as an efficient approach to perform loss-of-function studies. Besides obtaining fundamental insights on how viruses hijack cellular processes and on host defense mechanisms, it may also facilitate the development of new therapeutic strategies.

  • Lynette Cegelski

    Lynette Cegelski

    Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch in the Cegelski laboratory is driven by the need to uncover and define the chemistry that underlies outstanding challenges in human health, the environment, and sustainability. Beyond discovery, we use chemistry as a tool to innovate and create solutions to these pressing problems. The laboratory is highly interdisciplinary, designing experimental approaches to understand how complex biological systems are built, organized, and controlled, and then perturb and influence assembly processes. The lab develops new methods and uniquely leverages: (1) small molecules in new biochemical assay development, chemical genetics approaches, and therapeutic discovery in infectious diseases, (2) fluorescence and electron microscopy coupled to analytical HPLC, mass spectrometry, and complementary biochemical techniques, and (3) spectroscopy, particularly solid-state NMR, to uncover new “dark matter” and define chemistry in insoluble, heterogeneous and complex assemblies relevant to human health, plants, and the ocean.

    Long-standing efforts in the laboratory focus on defining mechanisms underlying bacterial biofilm formation and identifying new antibiotic and anti-virulence strategies, including advancing therapeutic candidates for the most difficult-to-treat infections. Through these efforts, we uncovered a new chemical structure in nature: phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) cellulose. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on earth and this discovery provided the first experimental validation of a naturally produced chemically modified cellulose. We are developing alternatively modified celluloses and polysaccharides and advancing new solutions for ecofriendly, sustainably sourced, and recyclable materials. Collectively, our projects span disciplines from molecular structure and assembly chemistry to living microbial communities and natural marine systems, while aiming to translate fundamental discoveries into therapeutic and materials solutions.

  • Ovijit Chaudhuri

    Ovijit Chaudhuri

    Professor of Mechanical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the physics of cell migration, division, and morphogenesis in 3D, as well cell-matrix mechanotransduction, or the process by which cells sense and respond to mechanical properties of the extracellular matrices. For both these areas, we use engineered biomaterials for 3D culture as artificial extracellular matrices.

  • James K. Chen

    James K. Chen

    Jauch Professor and Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology, of Developmental Biology and of Chemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur laboratory combines chemistry and developmental biology to investigate the molecular events that regulate embryonic patterning, tissue regeneration, and tumorigenesis. We are currently using genetic and small-molecule approaches to study the molecular mechanisms of Hedgehog signaling, and we are developing chemical technologies to perturb and observe the genetic programs that underlie vertebrate development.

  • Danny Hung-Chieh Chou

    Danny Hung-Chieh Chou

    Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Endocrinology) and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research program integrates concepts of chemical biology, protein engineering and structure biology to design new therapeutic leads and generate probes to study biological processes. A key focus of our lab is insulin, an essential hormone in our body to reduce blood glucose levels. We generate synthetic libraries of insulin analogs to select for chemical probes, and investigate natural insulin molecules (e.g. from the venom of fish-hunting cone snails!) to develop novel therapeutic candidates. We are especially interested in using chemical and enzymatic synthesis to create novel chemical entities with enhanced properties, and leverage the strong expertise of our collaborators to apply our skill sets in the fields of cancer biology, immunology and pain research. Our ultimate goal is to translate our discovery into therapeutic interventions in human diseases.

  • Jennifer R. Cochran

    Jennifer R. Cochran

    Vice President for SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and for Strategic Initiatives, Addie and Al Macovski Professor, Professor of Bioengineering and, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular Engineering, Protein Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Cell and Tissue Engineering, Molecular Imaging, Chemical Biology

  • Steven M. Corsello

    Steven M. Corsello

    Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology) and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur laboratory operates at the intersection of functional genomics and chemical biology, with the goal of advancing novel molecular mechanisms of cancer inhibition to clinical use. We aim to 1) leverage phenotypic screening and functional genomics to determine novel anti-cancer mechanisms of small molecules, 2) develop new targeted therapy approaches against solid tumors, and 3) build a comprehensive community resource for drug repurposing discovery.

  • Markus Covert

    Markus Covert

    Shriram Chair of the Department of Bioengineering, Professor of Bioengineering and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur focus is on building computational models of complex biological processes, and using them to guide an experimental program. Such an approach leads to a relatively rapid identification and validation of previously unknown components and interactions. Biological systems of interest include metabolic, regulatory and signaling networks as well as cell-cell interactions. Current research involves the dynamic behavior of NF-kappaB, an important family of transcription factors.

  • David Cox

    David Cox

    Assistant Professor of Genetics and, by courtesy, of Medicine (Hematology)

    BioDavid Cox is an Assistant Professor of Genetics and by courtesy of Medicine (Hematology) at Stanford University and Principal Investigator of the Cox Lab (coxlab.bio), which is opening in July 2025. He is also a ChEM-H Institute Scholar and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator.

    He completed his undergraduate studies in biology at Stanford University, where he worked with Irving Weissman on understanding how the innate immune system recognizes cancer cells. He then entered the Harvard-MIT MD-PhD program, earning his MD from the Harvard-MIT program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and his PhD in biology from MIT. His doctoral dissertation with Feng Zhang focused on the discovery and development of CRISPR-Cas enzymes as novel DNA and RNA editing tools. During his final year of medical school, he worked as a visiting scientist with David Baker, where he initiated efforts to design sequence-specific DNA binding proteins de novo.

    Following medical school, Cox completed internal medicine residency and a clinical fellowship in hematology at Stanford, where he concurrently conducted postdoctoral research in Rhiju Das's lab. In the Das lab, he fine-tuned large language models for RNA structure prediction and developed new methods for highly multiplexed detection of RNA-protein interactions.

    His current list of publications and patents is available here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZohHoFYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

  • Bianxiao Cui

    Bianxiao Cui

    Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of Chemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur objective is to develop new biophysical methods to advance current understandings of cellular machinery in the complicated environment of living cells. Currently, we are focusing on four research areas: (1) Membrane curvature at the nano-bio interface; (2) Nanoelectrode arrays (NEAs) for scalable intracellular electrophysiology; (3) Electrochromic optical recording (ECORE) for neuroscience; and (4) Optical control of neurotrophin receptor tyrosine kinases.

  • Yuqin Dai

    Yuqin Dai

    Director of Metabolomics

    BioDr. Yuqin Dai is the Director of Metabolomics at Stanford ChEM-H. In this role, she collaborates with faculty in the development and execution of experiments aimed at measuring small molecule drug candidates, endogenous and exogenous metabolites in a variety of biomedical R&D contexts. In addition, she provides strategic vision, mentorship, and leadership in the development of new LC/MS analytical methodologies for metabolomics research, the Metabolomics Knowledge Center’s daily operation and growth.
    Dr. Dai came to ChEM-H with 20 years of research, marketing and managerial experiences across biotech/pharma and analytical instrument industries. Prior to joining ChEM-H in January of 2020, Dr. Dai worked at Agilent managing strategic collaborations with key opinion leaders in academia and industry for metabolomics research, driving new application marketing opportunities, and developing differential solutions to support new LC/MS and automation product introductions. Before Agilent, Dr. Dai led bioanalytical R&D teams and managed DMPK projects to support drug discovery and development programs at three biotech/pharm companies. She was also extensively involved in new technology assessment and implementation. Dr. Dai received her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Alberta, Canada, where her research focused on the LC/MS and MALDI/MS instrumentation and method development for proteomics and small molecule applications.

  • Laura M.K. Dassama

    Laura M.K. Dassama

    Assistant Professor of Chemistry and of Microbiology and Immunology

    BioLaura Dassama is a chemical biologist who uses principles from chemistry and physics to understand complex biological phenomena. Her group’s primary goal is to use detailed understanding of the factors that enable interactions between biological molecules to provide insights that allow functional control of those molecules. Her research projects aim to 1) discover the drivers of biomolecular interactions and 2) leverage that information to modulate disease relevant proteins.

  • Joseph M. DeSimone

    Joseph M. DeSimone

    Sanjiv Sam Gambhir Professor of Translational Medicine, Professor of Chemical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Chemistry, of Materials Science and Engineering, and of Operations, Information and Technology at the Graduate School of Business

    BioJoseph M. DeSimone is the Sanjiv Sam Gambhir Professor of Translational Medicine and Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. He holds appointments in the Departments of Radiology and Chemical Engineering with courtesy appointments in the Department of Chemistry and in Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

    The DeSimone laboratory's research efforts are focused on developing innovative, interdisciplinary solutions to complex problems centered around advanced polymer 3D fabrication methods. In Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, the lab is pursuing new capabilities in digital 3D printing, as well as the synthesis of new polymers for use in advanced additive technologies. In Translational Medicine, research is focused on exploiting 3D digital fabrication tools to engineer new vaccine platforms, enhanced drug delivery approaches, and improved medical devices for numerous conditions, with a current major focus in pediatrics. Complementing these research areas, the DeSimone group has a third focus in Entrepreneurship, Digital Transformation, and Manufacturing.

    Before joining Stanford in 2020, DeSimone was a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and of chemical engineering at North Carolina State University. He is also Co-founder, Board Chair, and former CEO (2014 - 2019) of the additive manufacturing company, Carbon. DeSimone is responsible for numerous breakthroughs in his career in areas including green chemistry, medical devices, nanomedicine, and 3D printing. He has published over 350 scientific articles and is a named inventor on over 200 issued patents. Additionally, he has mentored 80 students through Ph.D. completion in his career, half of whom are women and members of underrepresented groups in STEM.

    In 2016 DeSimone was recognized by President Barack Obama with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest U.S. honor for achievement and leadership in advancing technological progress. He has received numerous other major awards in his career, including the U.S. Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (1997); the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention (2005); the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2008); the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2009); the AAAS Mentor Award (2010); the Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment (2017); the Wilhelm Exner Medal (2019); the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2019 U.S. Overall National Winner); and the Harvey Prize in Science and Technology (2020). He is one of only 25 individuals elected to all three branches of the U.S. National Academies (Sciences, Medicine, Engineering). DeSimone received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1986 from Ursinus College and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1990 from Virginia Tech.

  • Scott Dixon

    Scott Dixon

    Professor of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab is interested in the relationship between cell death and metabolism. Using techniques drawn from many disciplines my laboratory is investigating how perturbation of intracellular metabolic networks can result in novel forms of cell death, such as ferroptosis. We are interested in applying this knowledge to find new ways to treat diseases characterized by insufficient (e.g. cancer) or excessive (e.g. neurodegeneration) cell death.

  • Ron Dror

    Ron Dror

    Cheriton Family Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Structural Biology and of Molecular & Cellular Physiology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab’s research focuses on computational biology, with an emphasis on 3D molecular structure. We combine two approaches: (1) Bottom-up: given the basic physics governing atomic interactions, use simulations to predict molecular behavior; (2) Top-down: given experimental data, use machine learning to predict molecular structures and properties. We collaborate closely with experimentalists and apply our methods to the discovery of safer, more effective drugs.

  • Alexander Dunn

    Alexander Dunn

    Professor of Chemical Engineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab is deeply interested in uncovering the physical principles that underlie the construction of complex, multicellular animal life.

  • Alice C. Fan

    Alice C. Fan

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

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Fan is a physician scientist who studies how turning off oncogenes (cancer genes) can cause tumor regression in preclinical and clinical translational studies. Based on her findings, she has initiated clinical trials studying how targeted therapies affect cancer signals in kidney cancer and low grade lymphoma. In the laboratory, she uses new nanotechnology strategies for tumor diagnosis and treatment to define biomarkers for personalized therapy.

  • Rongxin Fang

    Rongxin Fang

    Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Genetics

    BioRongxin Fang received his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology from the University of California, San Diego, under the mentorship of Bing Ren (2015–2019). During his doctoral training, he developed high-throughput genomic technologies and computational tools to map the structure and activity of the mammalian genome at large scale and single-cell resolution. He then applied these approaches to investigate how cis-regulatory elements - such as enhancers - control gene expression and drive the diverse transcriptional programs underlying cellular diversity in the mammalian brain. As an HHMI–Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University (2019–2024), he worked with Xiaowei Zhuang. Rongxin developed and applied genome-scale, volumetric 3D transcriptome imaging methods to map the molecular and cellular architecture of the mammalian brain across evolution and aging. He also contributed to the collaboration with Adam Cohen and Catherine Dulac to integrate transcriptome imaging with functional neuronal imaging, identifying neuronal populations in the animal brain that underlie specific brain functions.

  • Dean W. Felsher

    Dean W. Felsher

    Professor of Medicine (Oncology) and of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy laboratory studies the molecular basis of cancer with a focus on understanding when cancer can be reversed through targeted oncogene inactivation.

  • Daniel Fernandez

    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.

  • Michael Fischbach

    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.

  • Polly Fordyce

    Polly Fordyce

    Associate Professor of Bioengineering and of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Fordyce Lab is focused on developing new instrumentation and assays for making quantitative, systems-scale biophysical measurements of molecular interactions. Current research in the lab is focused on three main platforms: (1) arrays of valved reaction chambers for high-throughput protein expression and characterization, (2) spectrally encoded beads for multiplexed bioassays, and (3) sortable droplets and microwells for single-cell assays.

  • Judith Frydman

    Judith Frydman

    Donald Kennedy Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe long term goal of our research is to understand how proteins fold in living cells. My lab uses a multidisciplinary approach to address fundamental questions about molecular chaperones, protein folding and degradation. In addition to basic mechanistic principles, we aim to define how impairment of cellular folding and quality control are linked to disease, including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases and examine whether reengineering chaperone networks can provide therapeutic strategies.

  • Xiaojing Gao

    Xiaojing Gao

    Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHow do we design biological systems as “smart medicine” that sense patients’ states, process the information, and respond accordingly? To realize this vision, we will tackle fundamental challenges across different levels of complexity, such as (1) protein components that minimize their crosstalk with human cells and immunogenicity, (2) biomolecular circuits that function robustly in different cells and are easy to deliver, (3) multicellular consortia that communicate through scalable channels, and (4) therapeutic modules that interface with physiological inputs/outputs. Our engineering targets include biomolecules, molecular circuits, viruses, and cells, and our approach combines quantitative experimental analysis with computational simulation. The molecular tools we build will be applied to diverse fields such as neurobiology and cancer therapy.

  • Jeffrey S.  Glenn, M.D., Ph.D.

    Jeffrey S. Glenn, M.D., Ph.D.

    Joseph D. Grant Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Glenn's primary interest is in molecular virology, with a strong emphasis on translating this knowledge into novel antiviral therapies. Other interests include exploitation of hepatic stem cells, engineered human liver tissues, liver cancer, and new biodefense antiviral strategies.

  • Anna L Gloyn

    Anna L Gloyn

    Professor of Pediatrics (Endocrinology) and of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAnna's current research projects are focused on the translation of genetic association signals for type 2 diabetes and glycaemic traits into cellular and molecular mechanisms for beta-cell dysfunction and diabetes. Her group uses a variety of complementary approaches, including human genetics, functional genomics, physiology and islet-biology to dissect out the molecular mechanisms driving disease pathogenesis.

  • Lauren Goins

    Lauren Goins

    Assistant Professor of Developmental Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Goins lab aims to understand how cells make decisions. Our research focuses on how young, immature blood stem cells, with the potential to become many different cell types, choose between these cell fates.

  • Stuart Goodman, MD, PhD

    Stuart Goodman, MD, PhD

    The Robert L. and Mary Ellenburg Professor of Surgery and Professor, by courtesy, of Bioengineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAs an academic orthopaedic surgeon, my interests center on adult reconstructive surgery, arthritis surgery, joint replacement, biomaterials, biocompatibility, tissue engineering, mesenchymal stem cells. Collaborative clinical, applied and basic research studies are ongoing.

  • Or Gozani

    Or Gozani

    Dr. Morris Herzstein Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the molecular mechanisms by which chromatin-signaling networks effect nuclear and epigenetic programs, and how dysregulation of these pathways leads to disease. Our work centers on the biology of lysine methylation, a principal chromatin-regulatory mechanism that directs epigenetic processes. We study how lysine methylation events are generated, sensed, and transduced, and how these chemical marks integrate with other nuclear signaling systems to govern diverse cellular functions.

  • Nathanael S. Gray

    Nathanael S. Gray

    Krishnan-Shah Family Professor

    BioNathanael Gray is the Krishnan-Shah Family Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford, Co-Director of Cancer Drug Discovery Co-Leader of the Cancer Therapeutics Research Program, Member of Chem-H, and Program Leader for Small Molecule Drug Discovery for the Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). His research utilizes the tools of synthetic chemistry, protein biochemistry, and cancer biology to discover and validate new strategies for the inhibition of anti-cancer targets. Dr. Gray’s research has had broad impact in the areas of kinase inhibitor design and in circumventing drug resistance.
    Dr. Gray received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999 after receiving his BS degree with the highest honor award from the same institution in 1995. After completing his PhD, Dr. Gray was recruited to the newly established Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego, California. During his six year stay at GNF, Dr. Gray became the director of biological chemistry where he supervised a group of over fifty researchers integrating chemical, biological and pharmacological approaches towards the development of new experimental drugs. Some of the notable accomplishments of Dr. Gray’s team at GNF include: discovery of the first allosteric inhibitors of wild-type and mutant forms of BCR-ABL which resulted in clinical development of ABL001; discovery of the first selective inhibitors of the Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK), an achievement that led to the development of now FDA-approved drugs such as ceritinib (LDK378) for the treatment of EML4-ALK expressing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and discovery that sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor-1 (S1P1) is the pharmacologically relevant target of the immunosuppressant drug Fingomilod (FTY720) followed by the development of Siponimod (BAF312), which is currently used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
    In 2006, Dr. Gray returned to academia as a faculty member at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston. There, he has established a discovery chemistry group that focuses on developing first-in-class inhibitors for newly emerging biological targets, including resistant alleles of existing targets, as well as inhibitors of well-validated targets, such as Her3 and RAS, that have previously been considered recalcitrant to small molecule drug development. Dr. Gray’s team developed covalent inhibitors of the T790M mutant of EGFR inspired the development of Osimertinib (AZD9291), now FDA approved for treatment of patients with relapsed lung cancer due to resistance to first generation EGFR inhibitors. Dr. Gray has also developed structure-based, generalized approaches for designing drugs to overcome one of the most common mechanisms of resistance observed against most kinase inhibitor drugs, mutation of the so-called "gatekeeper" residue, which has been observed in resistance to drugs targeting BCR-ABL, c-KIT and PDGFR.
    In 2021, Dr. Gray joined Stanford University where he has joined the Stanford Cancer Institute, Chem-H and the Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA) to spur the development of prototype drugs.
    These contributions have been recognized through numerous awards including the National Science Foundation’s Career award in 2007, the Damon Runyon Foundation Innovator award in 2008, the American Association for Cancer Research for Team Science in 2010 and for Outstanding Achievement in 2011 and the American Chemical Society award for Biological Chemistry in 2011, and the Nancy Lurie Marks endowed professorship in 2015 and the Paul Marks Prize in 2019, and the Hope Funds for Cancer Research in 2023.

  • Sarah Heilshorn

    Sarah Heilshorn

    Rickey/Nielsen Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor, by courtesy, of Bioengineering and of Chemical Engineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProtein engineering
    Tissue engineering
    Regenerative medicine
    Biomaterials

  • Luis Hernandez-Nunez

    Luis Hernandez-Nunez

    Assistant Professor of Biology

    BioLuis Hernandez-Nunez is a tenure-track professor of biology, a Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar, a Branco Weiss faculty fellow, and a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award faculty fellow at Stanford University, where he leads the Hernandez-Nunez Lab. Luis’ research focuses on the circuit mechanisms underlying heart-brain interactions and on organismal circuits that implement multiorgan coordination and feedback control. Luis did his postdoctoral training with Florian Engert supported by an LSRF fellowship. Luis obtained his Ph.D. in Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology from Harvard in 2020. He conducted his doctoral research in Aravinthan Samuel’s lab, where he identified molecules, cells, and circuits that mediate thermal homeostasis in larval Drosophila. Before graduate school, Luis was an undergraduate and then a postbac researcher at Thierry Emonet’s lab at Yale University. Before moving to the U.S., Luis studied mechatronics engineering at the National University of Engineering in Peru.

  • Daniel Herschlag

    Daniel Herschlag

    Professor of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research is aimed at understanding the chemical and physical behavior underlying biological macromolecules and systems, as these behaviors define the capabilities and limitations of biology. Toward this end we study folding and catalysis by RNA, as well as catalysis by protein enzymes.

  • Brian Hie

    Brian Hie

    Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering

    BioI am an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, the Dieter Schwarz Foundation Stanford Data Science Faculty Fellow, and an Innovation Investigator at Arc Institute. I supervise the Laboratory of Evolutionary Design, where we conduct research at the intersection of biology and machine learning.

    I was previously a Stanford Science Fellow in the Stanford University School of Medicine and a Visiting Researcher at Meta AI. I completed my Ph.D. at MIT CSAIL and was an undergraduate at Stanford University.

  • Michael R. Howitt

    Michael R. Howitt

    Assistant Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology
    On Leave from 02/16/2026 To 07/17/2026

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab is broadly interested in how intestinal microbes shape our immune system to promote both health and disease. Recently we discovered that a type of intestinal epithelial cell, called tuft cells, act as sentinels stationed along the lining of the gut. Tuft cells respond to microbes, including parasites, to initiate type 2 immunity, remodel the epithelium, and alter gut physiology. Surprisingly, these changes to the intestine rely on the same chemosensory pathway found in oral taste cells. Currently, we aim to 1) elucidate the role of specific tuft cell receptors in microbial detection. 2) To understand how protozoa and bacteria within the microbiota impact host immunity. 3) Discover how tuft cells modulate surrounding cells and tissue.

  • KC Huang

    KC Huang

    LeRa Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
    On Leave from 01/01/2026 To 03/31/2026

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHow do cells determine their shape and grow?
    How do molecules inside cells get to the right place at the right time?

    Our group tries to answer these questions using a systems biology approach, in which we integrate interacting networks of protein and lipids with the physical forces determined by the spatial geometry of the cell. We use theoretical and computational techniques to make predictions that we can verify experimentally using synthetic, chemical, or genetic perturbations.

  • Adrian Hugenmatter

    Adrian Hugenmatter

    Director of Protein Engineering

    BioDr. Adrian Hugenmatter joined ChEM-H as Director of Protein Engineering in 2021. In his role, Dr. Hugenmatter heads the Protein Engineering Laboratory at the Nucleus and is responsible for the development of therapeutic proteins at the Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). Dr. Hugenmatter obtained his PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Donald Hilvert at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich, Switzerland), where he gained initial experience in the fields of enzymology, antibody engineering and directed evolution. Fascinated by protein engineering, he moved to the laboratory of Prof. Dan Tawfik at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), where he studied molecular evolution and its application in protein design. Dr. Hugenmatter then worked for more than a decade as a researcher and team leader at Roche. During this time, he was involved in the development and optimization of several antibody lead candidates for therapeutic applications in neuroscience and oncology.

  • Peter K.  Jackson

    Peter K.  Jackson

    Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (Baxter Labs) and of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCell cycle and cyclin control of DNA replication .

  • Christine Jacobs-Wagner

    Christine Jacobs-Wagner

    Dennis Cunningham Professor, Professor of Biology and of Microbiology and Immunology

    BioChristine Jacobs-Wagner is a Dennis Cunningham Professor in the Department of Biology and the ChEM-H Institute at Stanford University. She is interested in understanding the fundamental mechanisms and principles by which cells, and, in particular, bacterial cells, are able to multiple. She received her PhD in Biochemistry in 1996 from the University of Liège, Belgium where she unraveled a molecular mechanism by which some bacterial pathogens sense and respond to antibiotics attack to achieve resistance. For this work, she received multiple awards including the 1997 GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists. During her postdoctoral work at Stanford Medical School, she demonstrated that bacteria can localize regulatory proteins to specific intracellular regions to control signal transduction and the cell cycle, uncovering a new, unsuspected level of bacterial regulation.

    She started her own lab at Yale University in 2001. Over the years, her group made major contributions in the emerging field of bacterial cell biology and provided key molecular insights into the temporal and spatial mechanisms involved in cell morphogenesis, cell polarization, chromosome segregation and cell cycle control. For her distinguished work, she received the Pew Scholars award from the Pew Charitable Trust, the Woman in Cell Biology Junior award from the American Society of Cell Biology and the Eli Lilly award from the American Society of Microbiology. She held the Maxine F. Singer and William H. Fleming professor chairs at Yale. She was elected to the Connecticut academy of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology and the National Academy of Sciences. She has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2008.

    Her lab moved to Stanford in 2019. Current research examines the general principles and spatiotemporal mechanisms by which bacterial cells replicate, using Caulobacter crescentus and Escherichia coli as models. Recently, the Jacobs-Wagner lab expanded their interests to the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi, revealing unsuspected ways by which this pathogen grows and causes disease

  • Daniel Jarosz

    Daniel Jarosz

    Senior Associate Dean, Basic Science, Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Developmental Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy laboratory studies conformational switches in evolution, disease, and development. We focus on how molecular chaperones, proteins that help other biomolecules to fold, affect the phenotypic output of genetic variation. To do so we combine classical biochemistry and genetics with systems-level approaches. Ultimately we seek to understand how homeostatic mechanisms influence the acquisition of biological novelty and identify means of manipulating them for therapeutic and biosynthetic benefit.

  • Michael Christopher Jewett

    Michael Christopher Jewett

    Professor of Bioengineering and, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering

    BioMichael Jewett is a Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University. He received his B.S. from UCLA and PhD from Stanford University, both in Chemical Engineering. He completed postdoctoral studies at the Center for Microbial Biotechnology in Denmark and the Harvard Medical School. Jewett was also a guest professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). His research group focuses on advancing synthetic biology research to support planet and societal health, with applications in medicine, manufacturing, sustainability, and education.

  • Chaitan Khosla

    Chaitan Khosla

    Wells H. Rauser and Harold M. Petiprin Professor and Professor of Chemistry and, by courtesy, of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch in this laboratory focuses on problems where deep insights into enzymology and metabolism can be harnessed to improve human health.

    For the past two decades, we have studied and engineered enzymatic assembly lines called polyketide synthases that catalyze the biosynthesis of structurally complex and medicinally fascinating antibiotics in bacteria. An example of such an assembly line is found in the erythromycin biosynthetic pathway. Our current focus is on understanding the structure and mechanism of this polyketide synthase. At the same time, we are developing methods to decode the vast and growing number of orphan polyketide assembly lines in the sequence databases.

    For more than a decade, we have also investigated the pathogenesis of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine, with the goal of discovering therapies and related management tools for this widespread but overlooked disease. Ongoing efforts focus on understanding the pivotal role of transglutaminase 2 in triggering the inflammatory response to dietary gluten in the celiac intestine.

  • Peter S. Kim

    Peter S. Kim

    Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research focuses on developing new strategies for vaccine creation. We also aim to generate vaccines targeting infectious agents that have eluded efforts to date. We integrate experimental approaches with protein language models to guide artificial evolution and enable efficient antibody and protein engineering. Our interdisciplinary approach aims to address critical global health challenges.

  • Bruce Koch, Ph.D.

    Bruce Koch, Ph.D.

    Director of High-Throughput Screening

    Current Role at StanfordDirector, ChEM-H/CSB High Throughput Screening Group
    Staff Lead, IMA HTS Module

    Adviser to the SPARK Program

  • Siddharth Krishnan

    Siddharth Krishnan

    Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, and by courtesy, of Bioengineering and of Materials Science and Engineering

    BioSiddharth is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and a Terman Faculty Fellow at Stanford University. Prior to this, he was a K99-funded Research Scientist in the groups of Prof. Daniel Anderson and Prof. Robert Langer at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and at Boston Children's Hospital. He received BS and MS degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, and his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from Prof. John Rogers' group. His work has focused on the development of bioelectronic devices for sensing and therapeutics. He has published over 20 scientific papers, is an inventor several granted and pending patents and is co-founded of Rhaeos Inc., a company focused on translating his graduate work on wireless wearable diagnostic tools for neurological surgery. His work has been recognized through several awards, including a postdoctoral fellowship from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the 2019 Illinois Innovation Prize, a graduate student medal from the Materials Research Society and being named on MIT Technology Review’s Global Innovators Under 35 list.

  • Jin Billy Li

    Jin Billy Li

    Professor of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Li Lab is primarily interested in RNA editing mediated by ADAR enzymes. We co-discovered that the major function of RNA editing is to label endogenous dsRNAs as "self" to avoid being recognized as "non-self" by MDA5, a host innate immune dsRNA sensor, leading us to pursue therapeutic applications in cancer, autoimmune diseases, and viral infection. The other major direction of the lab is to develop technologies to harness endogenous ADAR enzymes for site-specific transcriptome engineering.

  • Lingyin Li

    Lingyin Li

    Professor of Biochemistry

    BioDr. Li is a professor in the Biochemistry Department and ChEM-H Institute at Stanford. She is also a core investigator of the Arc Institute. Her lab works on understanding biochemical mechanisms of the immunotransmitter cGAMP and harnessing it to treat cancer and autoimmunity. She majored in chemistry at University of Science and Technology of China and graduated with a B. En in 2003. She then trained with Dr. Laura Kiessling, a pioneer in chemical biology, at University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated with a Ph.D in chemistry in 2010. She obtained her postdoctoral training with Dr. Timothy Mitchison at Harvard Medical School, who introduced her to the field of chemical immunology. She started her lab at Stanford in 2015.

  • Michael Lin

    Michael Lin

    Professor of Neurobiology, of Bioengineering and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab applies biochemical and engineering principles to the development of protein-based tools for investigating biology in living animals. Topics of investigation include fluorescent protein-based voltage indicators, synthetic light-controllable proteins, bioluminescent reporters, and applications to studying animal models of disease.

  • Kyle Loh

    Kyle Loh

    Associate Professor of Developmental Biology (Stem Cell)

    BioHow the richly varied cell-types in the human body arise from one embryonic cell is a biological marvel and mystery. We have mapped how human embryonic stem cells develop into over twenty different human cell-types. This roadmap allowed us to generate enriched populations of human liver, bone, heart and blood vessel cells in a Petri dish from embryonic stem cells. Each of these human cells could regenerate their cognate tissue upon injection into respective mouse models, with relevance to regenerative medicine. In addition to developmental and stem cell biology, we have an emerging interest in exploring deadly biosafety level 4 viruses together with our collaborators.

    Kyle attended the County College of Morris and Rutgers, and received his Ph.D. from Stanford (working with Irving Weissman), with fellowships from the Hertz Foundation, National Science Foundation and Davidson Institute for Talent Development. He then continued as a Siebel Investigator, and later, as an Assistant Professor and The Anthony DiGenova Endowed Faculty Scholar at Stanford, where he is jointly appointed in the Department of Developmental Biology and Institute for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine. Kyle is a Packard Fellow, Pew Scholar, Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator and Baxter Foundation Faculty Scholar, and his research has been recognized by the NIH Director's Early Independence Award, Forbes 30 Under 30, Harold Weintraub Graduate Award, Hertz Foundation Thesis Prize and A*STAR Investigatorship.

  • Jonathan Z. Long

    Jonathan Z. Long

    Associate Professor of Pathology

    BioDr. Jonathan Long is an Associate Professor of Pathology and an Institute Scholar of Stanford ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health). His laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of mammalian energy homeostasis. Dr. Long is the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, the Breakthrough Sciences Award from the Ono Pharma Foundation, and the NIDDK Catalyst Award. Prior to arriving to Stanford, Dr. Long completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Scripps Research and his postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School.

  • Sharon R. Long

    Sharon R. Long

    William C. Steere, Jr. - Pfizer Inc. Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Biochemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBiochemistry, genetics and cell biology of plant-bacterial symbiosis

  • Anson Lowe

    Anson Lowe

    Associate Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology), Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe laboratory is focused on the relationship between injury, wound healing, and cancer. Esophageal, gastric, and pancreatic cancers are a focus. We are particularly interested in the regulation of cell signaling by EGFR, the EGF receptor. In addition to cancer pathogenesis, active projects include the development of new diagnostic assays and drugs.

  • Sydney X. Lu

    Sydney X. Lu

    Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hematology)

    BioSydney Lu is an assistant professor and physician-scientist in the Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine with a broad interest in both normal and abnormal RNA processing in the context of normal physiology and disease states. The laboratory studies translational questions regarding the mechanistic basis of RNA processing abnormalities in malignant blood disorders, their implications for leukemogenesis and cancer biology, as well as resultant therapeutic opportunities.

    As a physician, Sydney’s group is particularly focused on dissecting RNA processing abnormalities in primary patient samples and disease-relevant preclinical model systems. Lab members employ a variety of ‘wet-lab’ and computational approaches to study transcriptome abnormalities in (1) states of immune dysfunction, (2) myeloid blood cancers such as myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia, and (3) lymphoid blood cancers such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Additional projects are focused on novel therapeutics, including multiple targeted agents which modulate RNA processing, for the selective treatment of these diseases.

    Sydney’s research is/has been supposed by grant funding from the National Cancer Institute, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Aplastic Anemia & Myelodysplastic Syndromes International Foundation, the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Gabrielles Angel Foundation for Cancer Research, and the Stanford Cancer Institute.

  • Liqun Luo

    Liqun Luo

    Ann and Bill Swindells Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Neurobiology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study how neurons are organized into specialized circuits to perform specific functions and how these circuits are assembled during development. We have developed molecular-genetic and viral tools, and are combining them with transcriptomic, proteomic, physiological, and behavioral approaches to study these problems. Topics include: 1) assembly of the fly olfactory circuit; 2) assembly of neural circuits in the mouse brain; 3) organization and function of neural circuits; 4) Tool development.

  • Ruben Y. Luo

    Ruben Y. Luo

    Assistant Professor of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsApply top-down mass spectrometry and label-free immunoassay to the study and utilization of biomarker proteoforms in clinical diagnosis.

  • Vinit B. Mahajan, MD, PhD

    Vinit B. Mahajan, MD, PhD

    Professor of Ophthalmology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur focus is the development of personalized medicine for eye diseases through translation of our discoveries in proteomics, genomics, and phenomics in humans, mice and tissue culture models.

  • Nicole M. Martinez

    Nicole M. Martinez

    Assistant Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Developmental Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Martinez lab studies RNA regulatory mechanisms that control gene expression. We focus on mRNA processing, RNA modifications and their roles in development and disease.

  • Michaëlle Ntala Mayalu

    Michaëlle Ntala Mayalu

    Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering

    BioDr. Michaëlle N. Mayalu is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. She received her Ph.D., M.S., and B.S., degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology in the Computing and Mathematical Sciences Department. She was a 2017 California Alliance Postdoctoral Fellowship Program recipient and a 2019 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Program award recipient. She is also a 2023 Hypothesis Fund Grantee.

    Dr. Michaëlle N. Mayalu's area of expertise is in mathematical modeling and control theory of synthetic biological and biomedical systems. She is interested in the development of control theoretic tools for understanding, controlling, and predicting biological function at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels to optimize therapeutic intervention.

    She is the director of the Mayalu Lab whose research objective is to investigate how to optimize biomedical therapeutic designs using theoretical and computational approaches coupled with experiments. Initial project concepts include: i) theoretical and experimental design of bacterial "microrobots" for preemptive and targeted therapeutic intervention, ii) system-level multi-scale modeling of gut associated skin disorders for virtual evaluation and optimization of therapy, iii) theoretical and experimental design of "microrobotic" swarms of engineered bacteria with sophisticated centralized and decentralized control schemes to explore possible mechanisms of pattern formation. The experimental projects in the Mayalu Lab utilize established techniques borrowed from the field of synthetic biology to develop synthetic genetic circuits in E. coli to make bacterial "microrobots". Ultimately the Mayalu Lab aims to develop accurate and efficient modeling frameworks that incorporate computation, dynamical systems, and control theory that will become more widespread and impactful in the design of electro-mechanical and biological therapeutic machines.

  • Timothy Meyer

    Timothy Meyer

    Stanford University Professor of Nephrology, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsInadequate removal of uremic solutes contributes to widespread illness in the more than 500,000 Americans maintained on dialysis. But we know remarkably little about these solutes. Dr. Meyer's research efforts are focused on identifying which uremic solutes are toxic, how these solutes are made, and how their production could be decreased or their removal could be increased. We should be able to improve treatment if we knew more about what we are trying to remove.

  • Paul Salomon Mischel

    Paul Salomon Mischel

    Fortinet Founders Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research bridges cancer genetics, signal transduction and cellular metabolism as we aim to understand the molecular mechanisms that drive cancer development, progression, and drug resistance. We have made a series of discoveries that have identified a central role for ecDNA (extrachromosomal DNA) in cancer development, progression, accelerated tumor evolution and drug resistance.

  • W. E. Moerner

    W. E. Moerner

    Harry S. Mosher Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Applied Physics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLaser spectroscopy and microscopy of single molecules to probe biological systems, one biomolecule at a time. Primary thrusts: fluorescence microscopy far beyond the optical diffraction limit (PALM/STORM/STED), methods for 3D optical microscopy in cells, and trapping of single biomolecules in solution for extended study. We explore protein localization patterns in bacteria, structures of amyloid aggregates in cells, signaling proteins in the primary cilium, and dynamics of DNA and RNA.

  • Denise M. Monack

    Denise M. Monack

    Martha Meier Weiland Professor in the School of Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe primary focus of my research is to understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms of intracellular bacterial pathogenesis. We use several model systems to study complex host-pathogen interactions in the gut and in immune cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells. Ultimately we would like to understand how Salmonella persists within certain hosts for years in the face of a robust immune response.

  • Lauren O'Connell

    Lauren O'Connell

    Associate Professor of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe O'Connell lab studies how genetic and environmental factors contribute to biological diversity and adaptation. We are particularly interested in understanding (1) how behavior evolves through changes in brain function and (2) how animal physiology evolves through repurposing existing cellular components.

  • Sergiu P. Pasca

    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.

  • Rebecca Pinals

    Rebecca Pinals

    Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering

    BioThe brain is a fascinatingly complex and delicate system of biomolecules, cells, and dynamic interactions that must be carefully maintained to support human health. When this balance is disrupted, disease can arise. Neurodegenerative dementias including Alzheimer’s disease are highly prevalent and profoundly devastating, yet remain largely untreatable or incurable.

    The Pinals Lab engineers neuro-models and nano-tools to uncover mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease and intervene to halt—and even reverse—disease progression. A particular emphasis of our work is on the blood–brain barrier (BBB), the vascular interface that serves as the molecular gateway into the brain. We leverage human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to build 3D cellular systems, providing a platform to recapitulate human brain properties and pathologies. In parallel, we design nanoparticles to report on real-time neurochemical processes, enabling unprecedented access to dynamic and spatially resolved biomolecular phenomena, and to modulate disease states. By integrating advanced human brain tissue models with rationally designed nanotechnologies, we aim to generate fundamental insights and tools that translate into meaningful impacts for human health.

  • Matthew Porteus

    Matthew Porteus

    Sutardja Chuk Professor of Definitive and Curative Medicine

    BioDr. Porteus was raised in California and was a local graduate of Gunn High School before completing A.B. degree in “History and Science” at Harvard University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and wrote an thesis entitled “Safe or Dangerous Chimeras: The recombinant DNA controversy as a conflict between differing socially constructed interpretations of recombinant DNA technology.” He then returned to the area and completed his combined MD, PhD at Stanford Medical School with his PhD focused on understanding the molecular basis of mammalian forebrain development with his PhD thesis entitled “Isolation and Characterization of TES-1/DLX-2: A Novel Homeobox Gene Expressed During Mammalian Forebrain Development.” After completion of his dual degree program, he was an intern and resident in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and then completed his Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship in the combined Boston Chidlren’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute program. For his fellowship and post-doctoral research he worked with Dr. David Baltimore at MIT and CalTech where he began his studies in developing homologous recombination as a strategy to correct disease causing mutations in stem cells as definitive and curative therapy for children with genetic diseases of the blood, particularly sickle cell disease. Following his training with Dr. Baltimore, he took an independent faculty position at UT Southwestern in the Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry before again returning to Stanford in 2010 as an Associate Professor. During this time his work has been the first to demonstrate that gene correction could be achieved in human cells at frequencies that were high enough to potentially cure patients and is considered one of the pioneers and founders of the field of genome editing—a field that now encompasses thousands of labs and several new companies throughout the world. His research program continues to focus on developing genome editing by homologous recombination as curative therapy for children with genetic diseases but also has interests in the clonal dynamics of heterogeneous populations and the use of genome editing to better understand diseases that affect children including infant leukemias and genetic diseases that affect the muscle. Clinically, Dr. Porteus attends at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital where he takes care of pediatric patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

  • Lei (Stanley) Qi

    Lei (Stanley) Qi

    Associate Professor of Bioengineering

    BioDr. Lei (Stanley) Qi (publishes as Lei S. Qi) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University, an Institute Scholar at Sarafan ChEM-H, and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. Trained in physics and mathematics (Tsinghua University) and bioengineering (UC Berkeley), he was a Systems Biology Fellow at UCSF before joining the Stanford faculty in 2014.

    Qi is a pioneer in CRISPR technology and genome engineering. His lab created the first nuclease-deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) for targeted gene regulation, establishing CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and CRISPR activation (CRISPRa). Since then, his group has expanded CRISPR from an editing tool into a platform for programmable control of dynamic and spatial cell state, integrating scalable perturbation, live-cell and super-resolution imaging, and computation-guided design. This work has produced technologies for multiplexed transcriptome regulation, programmable 3D genome organization, spatial RNA logistics control, and real-time visualization of chromatin and transcriptional events in living cells.

    A distinctive focus of the Qi lab is closed-loop biology, combining perturbation with high-content measurements to infer mechanisms and iteratively refine control strategies. The lab develops platforms spanning multiplexed transcriptional and epigenetic control, spatial genome–transcriptome organization, and quantitative live-cell imaging of chromatin and transcriptional dynamics. A compact nuclease-dead CRISPR epigenetic editor from this technology lineage has advanced to first-in-human clinical testing for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD; NCT06907875), underscoring the translational potential of principle-driven control systems.

    Beyond single-cell control, Qi’s lab is building a framework for synthetic cell–cell communication, with particular emphasis on the bidirectional interplay between immune cells and neurons. The lab’s goal is to move beyond describing molecular parts to discovering fundamental control principles in living systems: how regulatory landscapes create stable states and memory, how spatial genome–RNA organization shapes dynamic responses, and how engineered cell–cell interactions can generate emergent multicellular behaviors. By integrating experimental bioengineering with computation and machine learning, the lab aims to identify generalizable rules linking molecular programs to systems-level physiology and disease trajectories and to translate those rules into next-generation therapeutic cells.

  • Jianghong Rao

    Jianghong Rao

    Professor of Radiology (Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford) and, by courtesy, of Chemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProbe chemistry and nanotechnology for molecular imaging and diagnostics

  • Grant M. Rotskoff

    Grant M. Rotskoff

    Assistant Professor of Chemistry

    BioGrant Rotskoff studies the nonequilibrium dynamics of living matter with a particular focus on self-organization from the molecular to the cellular scale. His work involves developing theoretical and computational tools that can probe and predict the properties of physical systems driven away from equilibrium. Recently, he has focused on characterizing and designing physically accurate machine learning techniques for biophysical modeling. Prior to his current position, Grant was a James S. McDonnell Fellow working at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in the Biophysics graduate group supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. His thesis, which was advised by Phillip Geissler and Gavin Crooks, developed theoretical tools for understanding nonequilibrium control of the small, fluctuating systems, such as those encountered in molecular biophysics. He also worked on coarsegrained models of the hydrophobic effect and self-assembly. Grant received an S.B. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago, where he became interested in biophysics as an undergraduate while working on free energy methods for large-scale molecular dynamics simulations.

    Research Summary

    My research focuses on theoretical and computational approaches to "mesoscale" biophysics. Many of the cellular phenomena that we consider the hallmarks of living systems occur at the scale of hundreds or thousands of proteins. Processes like the self-assembly of organelle-sized structures, the dynamics of cell division, and the transduction of signals from the environment to the machinery of the cell are not macroscopic phenomena—they are the result of a fluctuating, nonequilibrium dynamics. Experimentally probing mesoscale systems remains extremely difficult, though it is continuing to benefit from advances in cryo-electron microscopy and super-resolution imaging, among many other techniques. Predictive and explanatory models that resolve the essential physics at these intermediate scales have the power to both aid and enrich the understanding we are presently deriving from these experimental developments.

    Major parts of my research include:

    1. Dynamics of mesoscale biophysical assembly and response.— Biophysical processes involve chemical gradients and time-dependent external signals. These inherently nonequilibrium stimuli drive supermolecular organization within the cell. We develop models of active assembly processes and protein-membrane interactions as a foundation for the broad goal of characterizing the properties of nonequilibrium biomaterials.

    2. Machine learning and dimensionality reduction for physical models.— Machine learning techniques are rapidly becoming a central statistical tool in all domains of scientific research. We apply machine learning techniques to sampling problems that arise in computational chemistry and develop approaches for systematically coarse-graining physical models. Recently, we have also been exploring reinforcement learning in the context of nonequilibrium control problems.

    3. Methods for nonequilibrium simulation, optimization, and control.— We lack well-established theoretical frameworks for describing nonequilibrium states, even seemingly simple situations in which there are chemical or thermal gradients. Additionally, there are limited tools for predicting the response of nonequilibrium systems to external perturbations, even when the perturbations are small. Both of these problems pose key technical challenges for a theory of active biomaterials. We work on optimal control, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, and simulation methodology, with a particular interest in developing techniques for importance sampling configurations from nonequilibrium ensembles.

  • Florentine Rutaganira

    Florentine Rutaganira

    Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and of Developmental Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe use chemical tools to decipher the roles of key signaling networks in choanoflagellates, single-celled organisms that are the closest living relatives of animals. Choanoflagellates produce molecular signals essential for intercellular communication in animals and the presence of these molecules in choanoflagellates suggests that signaling components needed to communicate between cells is evolutionarily ancient. We aim to uncover new understanding of animal development, physiology and disease.

  • Julien Sage

    Julien Sage

    Elaine and John Chambers Professor of Pediatric Cancer and Professor of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe investigate the mechanisms by which normal cells become tumor cells, and we combine genetics, genomics, and proteomics approaches to investigate the differences between the proliferative response in response to injury and the hyperproliferative phenotype of cancer cells and to identify novel therapeutic targets in cancer cells.

  • Kathleen M. Sakamoto

    Kathleen M. Sakamoto

    Shelagh Galligan Professor in the School of Medicine

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on the molecular pathways that regulate normal and aberrant blood cell development, including acute leukemia and bone marrow failure syndromes. We are also studying novel drugs for treatment of cancer.

  • Juan G. Santiago

    Juan G. Santiago

    Charles Lee Powell Foundation Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly Interestshttp://microfluidics.stanford.edu/Projects/Projects.html

  • Serena Sanulli

    Serena Sanulli

    Assistant Professor of Genetics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the organizing principles of the genome and how these principles regulate cell identity and developmental switches. We combine Biochemistry and Biophysical methods such as NMR and Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange-MS with Cell Biology, and Genetics to explore genome organization across length and time scales and understand how cells leverage the diverse biophysical properties of chromatin to regulate genome function.

  • Ansuman Satpathy, MD, PhD

    Ansuman Satpathy, MD, PhD

    Associate Professor of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab works at the interface of immunology, cancer biology, and genomics to study cellular and molecular mechanisms of the immune response to cancer. In particular, we are leveraging high-throughput genomic technologies to understand the dynamics of the tumor-specific T cell response to cancer antigens and immunotherapies (checkpoint blockade, CAR-T cells, and others). We are also interested in understanding the impact of immuno-editing on the heterogeneity and clonal evolution of cancer.

  • Elizabeth Sattely

    Elizabeth Sattely

    Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering

    BioPlants have an extraordinary capacity to harvest atmospheric CO2 and sunlight for the production of energy-rich biopolymers, clinically used drugs, and other biologically active small molecules. The metabolic pathways that produce these compounds are key to developing sustainable biofuel feedstocks, protecting crops from pathogens, and discovering new natural-product based therapeutics for human disease. These applications motivate us to find new ways to elucidate and engineer plant metabolism. We use a multidisciplinary approach combining chemistry, enzymology, genetics, and metabolomics to tackle problems that include new methods for delignification of lignocellulosic biomass and the engineering of plant antibiotic biosynthesis.

  • Nirao Shah

    Nirao Shah

    Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Major Laboratories and Clinical Translational Neurosciences Incubator), of Neurobiology and, by courtesy, of Obstetrics and Gynecology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study how our brains generate social interactions that differ between the sexes. Such gender differences in behavior are regulated by sex hormones, experience, and social cues. Accordingly, we are characterizing how these internal and external factors control gene expression and neuronal physiology in the two sexes to generate behavior. We are also interested in understanding how such sex differences in the healthy brain translate to sex differences in many neuro-psychiatric illnesses.

  • Naima G. Sharaf

    Naima G. Sharaf

    Assistant Professor of Biology and, by courtesy, of Structural Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch in the lab bridges biology, microbiology, and immunology to translate lipoprotein research into therapeutics

  • Carla Shatz

    Carla Shatz

    Sapp Family Provostial Professor and Professor of Biology and of Neurobiology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe goal of research in the Shatz Laboratory is to discover how brain circuits are tuned up by experience during critical periods of development both before and after birth by elucidating cellular and molecular mechanisms that transform early fetal and neonatal brain circuits into mature connections. To discover mechanistic underpinnings of circuit tuning, the lab has conducted functional screens for genes regulated by neural activity and studied their function for vision, learning and memory.

  • Mark Smith

    Mark Smith

    Senior Research Scientist, Sarafan ChEM-H

    BioDr. Mark Smith is Director of the Medicinal Chemistry within the Sarafan ChEM-H Institute Nucleus and Co-Director of the Small Molecule Portfolio in Stanford's Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). In addition, Dr. Smith is Director of the Sarafan ChEM-H Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Program. Prior to Stanford, Dr. Smith was a Senior Scientist at Roche Pharmaceuticals where his research focused on the discovery of small molecule inhibitors for HIV reverse transcriptase, HCV polymerase and NS5A, influenza endonuclease and cap polymerase. Dr. Smith also led Roche's nucleoside chemistry efforts in the virology therapeutic area.

  • Edward I. Solomon

    Edward I. Solomon

    Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProf. Solomon's work spans physical-inorganic, bioinorganic, and theoretical-inorganic chemistry, focusing on spectroscopic elucidation of the electronic structure of transition metal complexes and its contribution to reactivity. He has advanced our understanding of metal sites involved in electron transfer, copper sites involved in O2 binding, activation and reduction to water, structure/function correlations over non-heme iron enzymes, and correlation of biological to heterogeneous catalysis.

  • Aaron F. Straight

    Aaron F. Straight

    Pfeiffer and Herold Families Professor, Professor of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the biology of chromosomes. Our research is focused on understanding how chromosomal domains are specialized for unique functions in chromosome segregation, cell division and cell differentiation. We are particularly interested in the genetic and epigenetic processes that govern vertebrate centromere function, in the organization of the genome in the eukaryotic nucleus and in the roles of RNAs in the regulation of chromosome structure.

  • Wenfei Sun

    Wenfei Sun

    Assistant Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe explore neural circuits regulating memory and systemic metabolism, integrating neuroscience and metabolic biology to tackle cognitive decline and metabolic disorders.

  • Katrin J Svensson

    Katrin J Svensson

    Associate Professor of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular metabolism
    Protein biochemistry
    Cell biology and function
    Animal physiology

  • Sindy Tang

    Sindy Tang

    Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Radiology and of Bioengineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe long-term goal of Dr. Tang's research program is to harness mass transport in microfluidic systems to accelerate precision medicine and material design for a future with better health and environmental sustainability.

    Current research areas include: (I) Physics of droplets in microfluidic systems, (II) Interfacial mass transport and self-assembly, and (III) Applications in food allergy, single-cell wound repair, and the bottom-up construction of synthetic cell and tissues in close collaboration with clinicians and biochemists at the Stanford School of Medicine, UCSF, and University of Michigan.

    For details see https://web.stanford.edu/group/tanglab/