Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute


Showing 381-400 of 672 Results

  • Joshua Makower

    Joshua Makower

    Yock Family Professor and Professor of Bioengineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Josh Makower is the Boston Scientific Applied Bioengineering Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering at the Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering and the Director of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, the program he co-founded with Dr. Paul Yock twenty years ago. Josh helped create the fundamental structure of the Center’s core curriculum and is the chief architect of what is now called “The Biodesign Process.” Over the past 20 years since Josh and Paul founded Biodesign, this curriculum and the associated textbook has been used at Stanford and across the world to train hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and industry leaders on the Biodesign process towards the advancement of medical innovation for the improvement of patient care. Josh has practiced these same techniques directly as the Founder & Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator, creating 9 companies since 1995. Transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include NeoTract, acquired by Teleflex, Acclarent, acquired by J&J, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard & TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic. Other ExploraMed/NEA ventures include Moximed, NC8 and Willow. Josh is also a Special Partner at NEA where he supports the healthcare team and medtech/healthtech investing practice. Josh serves on the boards of Allay Therapeutics, Revelle Aesthetics, Setpoint Medical, DOTS Technologies, Eargo, ExploraMed, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Moximed, Willow and Coravin. Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Josh is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and the College of Fellows of The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and was awarded the Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2018.

  • Robert Malenka

    Robert Malenka

    Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLong-lasting changes in synaptic strength are important for the modification of neural circuits by experience. A major goal of my laboratory is to elucidate the molecular events that trigger various forms of synaptic plasticity and the modifications in synaptic proteins that are responsible for the changes in synaptic efficacy.

  • Rachel Manber, PhD

    Rachel Manber, PhD

    Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (General Psychiatry and Psychology-Adult)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsRecent and current projects include
    Treatment of insomnia during pregnancy
    Treatment of insomnia comorbid with sleep apnea
    Use of digital interventions for insomnia among middle age and older adults
    Mobile intervention for insomnia among those with alcohol use

  • Jessie Markovits, MD

    Jessie Markovits, MD

    Clinical Associate Professor, Medicine
    Clinical Associate Professor (By courtesy), Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHypnosis for perioperative symptom management in elective orthopedic surgery.

  • Nicole Martinez-Martin

    Nicole Martinez-Martin

    Assistant Professor (Research) of Pediatrics (Biomedical Ethics) and, by courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Child Development)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsNIH/National Institute of Mental Health
    K01 MH118375-01A1
    “Ethical, Legal and Social Implications in the Use of Digital Technology for Mental Health Applications”

    Greenwall Foundation Making a Difference in Bioethics Grant
    “Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Digital Phenotyping”

  • 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.

  • Tarik F. Massoud, MD, PhD

    Tarik F. Massoud, MD, PhD

    Professor of Radiology (Neuroimaging and Neurointervention)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy current interests are in molecular and translational imaging of the brain especially in neuro-oncology and cerebrovascular diseases, experimental aspects of neuroimaging, clinical neuroradiology, neuroradiological anatomy, and research education and academic training of radiologists and scientists.

  • 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.

  • Jay McClelland

    Jay McClelland

    Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Professor of Psychology and, by courtesy, of Linguistics and of Computer Science

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research addresses topics in perception and decision making; learning and memory; language and reading; semantic cognition; and cognitive development. I view cognition as emerging from distributed processing activity of neural populations, with learning occurring through the adaptation of connections among neurons. A new focus of research in the laboratory is mathematical cognition and reasoning in humans and contemporary AI systems based on neural networks.

  • Uel Jackson McMahan

    Uel Jackson McMahan

    Professor of Neurobiology and of Structural Biology, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are currently investigating mechanisms involved in synaptic transmission and synaptogenesis using electron microscope tomography in ways that provide in situ 3D structural information at macromolecular resolution.

  • Jennifer A McNab

    Jennifer A McNab

    Associate Professor (Research) of Radiology (Radiological Sciences Laboratory)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research is focused on developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods that probe brain tissue microstructure. This requires new MRI contrast mechanisms, strategic encoding and reconstruction schemes, physiological monitoring, brain tissue modeling and validation. Applications of these methods include neuronavigation, neurosurgical planning and the development of improved biomarkers for brain development, degeneration, disease and injury.

  • Kimford Meador, MD

    Kimford Meador, MD

    Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences (Adult Neurology)

    BioDr. Meador is a Professor of Neurology and Neurosciences at Stanford University, and Clinical Director, Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. Dr. Meador graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Applied Biology (with high honor) and received his MD from the Medical College of Georgia. After an internship at the University of Virginia and service as an officer in the Public Health Corps, he completed a residency in Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia and a fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at the University of Florida. Dr. Meador joined the faculty at the Medical College of Georgia (1984-2002) where he became the Charbonnier Professor of Neurology. He was the Chair of Neurology at Georgetown University (2002-2004), the Melvin Greer Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at the University of Florida (2004-2008) where he served as Director of Epilepsy Program and Director of the Clinical Alzheimer Research Program, and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Emory University (2008-2013) where he served as Director of Epilepsy and of Clinical Neurocience Research. He joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2013. Dr. Meador has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications. His research interests include: cognitive mechanisms (e.g., memory and attention); cerebral lateralization; pharmacology and physiology of cognition; mechanisms of perception, consciousness and memory; EEG; epilepsy; epilepsy and pregnancy; preoperative evaluation for epilepsy surgery; intracarotid amobarbital procedure (i.e., Wada test); functional imaging; therapeutic drug trials; neurodevelopmental effects of antiepileptic drugs; psychoimmunology; behavioral disorders (e.g., aphasia, neglect, dementia); and neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Meador has served as the PI for a long running NIH multicenter study of pregnancy outcomes in women with epilepsy and their children. Dr. Meador has served on the editorial boards for Clinical Neurophysiology, Epilepsy and Behavior, Epilepsy Currents, Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurology, Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, and Epilepsy.com. His honors include Resident Teaching Award Medical College of Georgia; Outstanding Young Faculty Award in Clinical Sciences Medical College of Georgia; Distinguished Faculty Award for Clinical Research Medical College of Georgia Lawrence C. McHenry History Award American Academy of Neurology; Dreifuss Abstract Award American Epilepsy Society; Fellow of the American Neurological Association; Diplomat of American Neurologic Association; past Chair of the Section of Behavioral Neurology of American Academy of Neurology; past President of Society for Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology; past President of the Society for Behavioral & Cognitive Neurology; past President of the Southern EEG & Epilepsy Society; ranking in the top 10 experts in epilepsy worldwide by Expertscape; Distinguished Alumnus Award for Professional Achievement, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University 2015; American Epilepsy Society Clinical Research Award; and named award by the American Epilepsy Society: “Kimford J. Meador Research in Women with Epilepsy Award,” and ranked in the top 500 neuroscientist in the world and top 300 in USA by Research.com in 2022.

  • Elizabeth Mellins

    Elizabeth Mellins

    Member, Bio-X

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular mechanisms and intracellular pathways of MHC class II antigen processing and presentation, with a focus on B cells; mechanisms underlying HLA allele association with disease; disease mechanisms in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, including an HLA-linked complication; monocytes as drivers or suppressors of auto-inflammation in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and pediatric acute neuropsychiatric syndrome.

  • Nicholas Melosh

    Nicholas Melosh

    Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

    BioThe Melosh group explores how to apply new methods from the semiconductor and self-assembly fields to important problems in biology, materials, and energy. We think about how to rationally design engineered interfaces to enhance communication with biological cells and tissues, or to improve energy conversion and materials synthesis. In particular, we are interested in seamlessly integrating inorganic structures together with biology for improved cell transfection and therapies, and designing new materials, often using diamondoid molecules as building blocks.
    My group is very interested in how to design new inorganic structures that will seamless integrate with biological systems to address problems that are not feasible by other means. This involves both fundamental work such as to deeply understand how lipid membranes interact with inorganic surfaces, electrokinetic phenomena in biologically relevant solutions, and applying this knowledge into new device designs. Examples of this include “nanostraw” drug delivery platforms for direct delivery or extraction of material through the cell wall using a biomimetic gap-junction made using nanoscale semiconductor processing techniques. We also engineer materials and structures for neural interfaces and electronics pertinent to highly parallel data acquisition and recording. For instance, we have created inorganic electrodes that mimic the hydrophobic banding of natural transmembrane proteins, allowing them to ‘fuse’ into the cell wall, providing a tight electrical junction for solid-state patch clamping. In addition to significant efforts at engineering surfaces at the molecular level, we also work on ‘bridge’ projects that span between engineering and biological/clinical needs. My long history with nano- and microfabrication techniques and their interactions with biological constructs provide the skills necessary to fabricate and analyze new bio-electronic systems.


    Research Interests:
    Bio-inorganic Interface
    Molecular materials at interfaces
    Self-Assembly and Nucleation and Growth

  • Vinod Menon

    Vinod Menon

    Rachael L. and Walter F. Nichols, MD, Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Education and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEXPERIMENTAL, CLINICAL AND THEORETICAL SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE

    Cognitive neuroscience; Systems neuroscience; Cognitive development; Psychiatric neuroscience; Functional brain imaging; Dynamical basis of brain function; Nonlinear dynamics of neural systems.

  • Chris Mentzel

    Chris Mentzel

    Managing Director, Stanford Digital Brain Project, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
    Staff, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

    BioChris currently serves as a strategic advisor and interim staff leader for a new initiative in human neuroscience and AI.

    Previously, Chris led Stanford’s efforts in research and early-career development around data science and data-driven discovery, engaging the entire campus in advancing and applying new data science and AI theory and practice to accelerate research. He helped launch Stanford Data Science and facilitated the merger between SDS and HAI. Before Stanford, Chris started and led the Moore Foundation's Data-Driven Discovery Initiative, an $80 million effort within the Science Program to enable data scientists to turn the scientific data deluge into opportunities to address some of today's most important research questions. He also led the grants administration department and worked as senior network engineer for the foundation. Chris has held positions as a systems engineer and integrator at the University of California, Berkeley, and at various Internet consulting firms in the Bay Area. An active member of the broader big data and open science communities, Chris serves on a number of advisory boards and program committees and speaks frequently at conferences and workshops on topics related to data-driven research.

    Chris received a B.A. in mathematics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.Sc. in management science and engineering at Stanford University.

  • Everett Meyer

    Everett Meyer

    Professor of Medicine (Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch focus in T cell immunotherapy and T cell immune monitoring using high-throughput sequencing and genomic approaches, with an emphasis on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the treatment of graft-versus-host disease and immune tolerance induction.

  • Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD

    Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD

    Craig Reynolds Professor of Sleep Medicine and Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe research focus of the laboratory is the study of sleep and sleep disorders such as narcolepsy and Kleine Levin syndrome. We also study the neurobiological and genetic basis of the EEG and develop new tools to study sleep using nocturnal polysomnography. Approaches mostly involve human genetic studies (GWAS, sequencing), EEG signal analysis (deep learning), and immunology (narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease of the brain). We also work on autoimmune encephalitis.