Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Showing 641-660 of 660 Results
-
Yunzhi Peter Yang
Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and, by courtesy, of Materials Science and Engineering and of Bioengineering
On Partial Leave from 12/01/2025 To 05/31/2026Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Yang Lab focuses on next-generation solutions at the intersection of 3D printing, regenerative medicine, modular tissue engineering, biomaterials, and medical device innovation. Our research focuses on engineering dynamic, biomimetic microenvironments that promote cell growth, tissue regeneration, and functional restoration. We develop transformative technologies to treat a broad spectrum of musculoskeletal conditions—including multi-tissue healing challenges and complex traumatic injuries.
-
Jason Yeatman
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics), of Education and of Psychology
BioDr. Jason Yeatman is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Department of Psychology at Stanford University and the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Yeatman completed his PhD in Psychology at Stanford where he studied the neurobiology of literacy and developed new brain imaging methods for studying the relationship between brain plasticity and learning. After finishing his PhD, he took a faculty position at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences before returning to Stanford.
As the director of the Brain Development and Education Lab, the overarching goal of his research is to understand the mechanisms that underlie the process of learning to read, how these mechanisms differ in children with dyslexia, and to design literacy intervention programs that are effective across the wide spectrum of learning differences. His lab employs a collection of structural and functional neuroimaging measurements to study how a child’s experience with reading instruction shapes the development of brain circuits that are specialized for this unique cognitive function. -
David C. Yeomans
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPhysiology of different pain types; Biomarkers of pain and inflammation; Gene Therapy for Pain
-
Jerome Yesavage
Jared and Mae Tinklenberg Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study cognitive processes and aging in our research center. Studies range from molecular biology to neuropsychology of cognitive processes.
-
Serena Yeung-Levy
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering and of Computer Science
BioDr. Serena Yeung-Levy is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, of Computer Science and of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Her research focus is on developing artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to enable new capabilities in biomedicine and healthcare. She has extensive expertise in deep learning and computer vision, and has developed computer vision algorithms for analyzing diverse types of visual data ranging from video capture of human behavior, to medical images and cell microscopy images.
Dr. Yeung-Levy leads the Medical AI and Computer Vision Lab at Stanford. She is affiliated with the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Clinical Excellence Research Center, and the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Imaging. She is also a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator and has served on the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director Working Group on Artificial Intelligence. -
Jong H. Yoon
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Public Mental Health & Population Sciences)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research seeks to discover the brain mechanisms responsible for schizophrenia and to translate this knowledge into the clinic to improve how we diagnose and treat this condition. Towards these ends, our group has been developing cutting-edge neuroimaging tools to identify neurobiological abnormalities and test novel systems-level disease models of psychosis and schizophrenia directly in individuals with these conditions.
We have been particularly interested in the role of neocortical-basal ganglia circuit dysfunction. A working hypothesis is that some of the core symptoms of schizophrenia are attributable to impairments in neocortical function that results in disconnectivity with components of the basal ganglia and dysregulation of their activity. The Yoon Lab has developed new high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging methods to more precisely measure the function of basal ganglia components, which given their small size and location deep within the brain has been challenging. This includes ways to measure the activity of nuclei that store and control the release of dopamine throughout the brain, a neurochemical that is one of the most important factors in the production of psychosis in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric conditions. -
Kyan Younes, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Adult Neurology
BioDr. Younes is a fellowship-trained, board-certified neurologist and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
His areas of expertise include the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasia, Lewy body dementia, normal pressure hydrocephalus and cognitive and behavioral impairments. For each patient, Dr. Younes develops a personalized plan of care. A plan may include his close collaboration with experts from psychiatry, nursing, pharmacy, genetic counseling, and other specialties. His goal is to ensure that each patient receives care that is both comprehensive and compassionate.
To help lead advances and innovations in his field, Dr. Younes conducts extensive research. He is studying the clinical, neuropsychological, socioemotional, genetic, and pathological features when a patient experiences degeneration of the right anterior temporal lobe area of the brain. This disorder can affect a person’s ability to process emotions and person-specific knowledge.
He also is researching how multimodal brain imaging, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) combined with machine learning can help improve the detection of neurodegenerative diseases. In other research, he has participated in clinical trials of new drug therapies for Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Younes has presented research findings at meetings of the American Neurological Association, American Academy of Neurology, and American Psychiatric Association. Topics have included predictors of cognitive performance in dementia.
He has co-authored research articles published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, Journal of Neuroimaging, and elsewhere. Subjects of these articles have included guidelines for diagnosing the effects of right anterior temporal lobe degeneration on behavior, treatment for symptoms of encephalitis, and the impact of mild traumatic brain injury on healthy older adults.
Dr. Younes has written chapters on frontotemporal dementia for Psychiatric Clinics as well as the epilepsy, coma, acute ischemic stroke, meningitis and encephalitis chapters for the textbook The Little Black Book of Neurology.
He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, American Neurological Association, Alzheimer’s Association, and International Society for Frontotemporal Dementias. -
Hengameh Zahed, MD, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Adult Neurology
BioDr. Zahed is a board-certified, fellowship-trained neurologist with the Stanford Medicine Movement Disorders Center. She is also a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences.
She diagnoses and treats a wide range of movement disorders including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia, and ataxia. She creates a personalized treatment plan for each of her patients using a variety of treatment options, including pharmacological and non-pharmacological options, deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment for Parkinson's disease and tremors, and botulinum toxin injections for movement disorders and spasticity.
Prior to joining Stanford University, Dr. Zahed completed a neurology residency and fellowship in movement disorders at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she also earned her MD and PhD in biomedical sciences. Dr. Zahed’s research interests include understanding the genetic and electrophysiological underpinnings of movement disorders and investigating applications of wearable technologies to monitor symptoms and improve the quality of life in patients with movement disorders. She also participates in clinical trials of new therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.
Dr. Zahed has published in Movement Disorders, Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, American Journal of Human Genetics, Cell, and other peer-reviewed journals. She has presented to her peers at international, national, and regional meetings. These meetings have included the International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, the Hereditary Disease Foundation Symposium, the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, and the Society for Neuroscience.
Dr. Zahed is a member of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society. -
Natalie M. Zahr
Assistant Professor (Research) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Major Laboratories)
BioNatalie M. Zahr received a graduate education in the basic sciences including the study of neuro- pharmacology, physiology, and anatomy. After completing her graduate training in electrophysiology, she began a postdoctoral fellowship as a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scientist. Her work focuses on translational approaches using in vivo MR imaging and spectroscopy in studies of human with Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD) and in rodent models of alcohol exposure with the goal of identifying mechanisms of alcohol effects on the brain. Her human studies include participants with HIV, those co-morbid for HIV and AUD and recently, aging individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Her position allows her to explore emerging MR technologies and apply them to test relevant hypotheses. Before joining Stanford, she taught at several local institutions including UC Berkeley extension and Santa Clara University where she enjoyed sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm for learning with students.
-
Jamil Zaki
Professor of Psychology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on the cognitive and neural bases of social behavior, and in particular on how people respond to each other's emotions (empathy), why they conform to each other (social influence), and why they choose to help each other (prosociality).
-
Richard Zare
Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and Professor, by courtesy, of Physics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research group is exploring a variety of topics that range from the basic understanding of chemical reaction dynamics to the nature of the chemical contents of single cells.
Under thermal conditions nature seems to hide the details of how elementary reactions occur through a series of averages over reagent velocity, internal energy, impact parameter, and orientation. To discover the effects of these variables on reactivity, it is necessary to carry out studies of chemical reactions far from equilibrium in which the states of the reactants are more sharply restricted and can be varied in a controlled manner. My research group is attempting to meet this tough experimental challenge through a number of laser techniques that prepare reactants in specific quantum states and probe the quantum state distributions of the resulting products. It is our belief that such state-to-state information gives the deepest insight into the forces that operate in the breaking of old bonds and the making of new ones.
Space does not permit a full description of these projects, and I earnestly invite correspondence. The following examples are representative:
The simplest of all neutral bimolecular reactions is the exchange reaction H H2 -> H2 H. We are studying this system and various isotopic cousins using a tunable UV laser pulse to photodissociate HBr (DBr) and hence create fast H (D) atoms of known translational energy in the presence of H2 and/or D2 and using a laser multiphoton ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer to detect the nascent molecular products in a quantum-state-specific manner by means of an imaging technique. It is expected that these product state distributions will provide a key test of the adequacy of various advanced theoretical schemes for modeling this reaction.
Analytical efforts involve the use of capillary zone electrophoresis, two-step laser desorption laser multiphoton ionization mass spectrometry, cavity ring-down spectroscopy, and Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometry. We believe these methods can revolutionize trace analysis, particularly of biomolecules in cells. -
Michael Zeineh
Professor of Radiology (Neuroimaging and Neurointervention)
BioDr. Michael Zeineh received a B.S. in Biology at Caltech in 1995 and obtained his M.D.-Ph.D. from UCLA in 2003. After internship also at UCLA, he went on to radiology residency and neuroradiology fellowship both at Stanford. He has been faculty in Stanford Neuroradiology since 2010. He spearheads many initiatives in advanced clinical imaging at Stanford, including clinical fMRI and DTI. Simultaneously, he runs a lab with the goal of discovering new imaging abnormalities in neurodegenerative disorders, with a focus on detailed microcircuitry in regions such as the hippocampal formation using advanced, multi-modal in vivo and ex vivo methods, with applications to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and mild traumatic brain injury.
-
Jamie Zeitzer
Professor (Research) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Sleep Medicine)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Zeitzer is a circadian physiologist specializing in the understanding of the impact of light on circadian rhythms and other aspects of non-image forming light perception.
He examines the manner in which humans respond to light and ways to manipulate this responsiveness, with direct application to jet lag, shift work, and altered sleep timing in teens. Dr. Zeitzer has also pioneered the use of actigraphy in the determination of epiphenomenal markers of psychiatric disorders. -
Yu Zhang
Assistant Professor (Research) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Public Mental Health and Population Sciences)
BioDr. Yu Zhang's research operates at the intersection of AI, translational neuroscience, and precision medicine. His work focuses on unraveling the complex neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive deficits, behavioral dysfunctions, and therapeutic responses in mental health disorders. By integrating advanced machine learning techniques with multimodal brain imaging modalities (e.g., fMRI, DTI, EEG), Dr. Zhang aims to identify neural signatures that reveal the heterogeneity of mental disorders across individuals. A central goal of his research is the development and validation of robust neurobiomarkers to improve diagnostic accuracy, refine prognostic assessments, and guide personalized treatment strategies. His work systematically characterizes brain function and dysfunction to optimize therapeutic interventions, including pharmacological treatments, psychotherapy, and neurostimulation. He is particularly focused on conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and related dimentia, mood disorders, and neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ADHD, ASD), where individualized approaches are essential for improving patient outcomes.
Dr. Zhang has received several grants including the R01, R21, and Alzheimer's Association AARG grant. Beyond foundational research, Dr. Zhang is committed to bridging the gap between computational innovation and clinical application. By collaborating with clinicians, neuroscientists, and engineers, he strives to translate data-driven insights into actionable tools for real-world healthcare settings. His long-term vision is to enable mental health diagnostics and treatment to be guided by objective, biologically grounded biomarkers, thereby enhancing quality of life and long-term outcomes for individuals with psychiatric and neurological conditions.
The Stanford Precision NeuroIntelligence (SPNI) Lab, led by Dr. Zhang, is dedicated to advancing research in AI-driven neuroimaging and precision psychiatry. The lab develops and applies cutting-edge machine learning and deep learning methods to uncover neurobiological mechanisms associated with cognitive and behavioral dysfunctions, as well as treatment responses in mental health conditions. Its mission is to identify translational biomarkers that support precision diagnosis, prognosis, and targeted interventions for mood disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. -
Heng Zhao
Member, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab is focused on developing novel therapeutic methods against stroke using rodent models. We study protective effect of postconditioning, preconditioning and mild hypothermia. The rationale for studying three means of neuroprotection is that we may discover mechanisms that these treatments have in common. Conversely, if they have differing mechanisms, we will be able to offer more than one treatment for stroke and increase a patients chance for recovery.
-
Renee Zhao
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering and of Materials Science and Engineering
BioRuike Renee Zhao is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, where she directs the Soft Intelligent Materials Laboratory. Originally from the historic city of Xi'an, she earned her BS from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 2012. She then pursued Solid Mechanics at Brown University, obtaining her MS in 2014 and PhD in 2016. Following her doctoral studies, she completed postdoctoral training at MIT (2016–2018) before serving as an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University (2018–2021).
Renee’s research focuses on developing stimuli-responsive soft composites for multifunctional robotic systems with integrated shape-changing, assembly, sensing, and navigation capabilities. By integrating mechanics, material science, and advanced material manufacturing, her work enables innovations in soft robotics, miniaturized biomedical devices, robotic surgery, origami systems, active metamaterials, and general deployable morphing structures.
Her contributions have been recognized with honors and awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA, 2025), ARO Early Career Program (ECP) Award (2023), AFOSR Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) Award (2023), Eshelby Mechanics Award for Young Faculty (2022), ASME Henry Hess Early Career Publication Award (2022), ASME Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal (2022), ASME Applied Mechanics Division Journal of Applied Mechanics Award (2021), NSF CAREER Award (2020), and ASME Applied Mechanics Division Haythornthwaite Research Initiation Award (2018). She is also recognized as a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow and was named one of MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35. -
Xiaolin Zheng
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, of Energy Science Engineering, Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy and Professor, by courtesy, of Materials Science and Engineering
BioProfessor Zheng received her Ph.D. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University (2006), B.S. in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University (2000). Prior to joining Stanford in 2007, Professor Zheng did her postdoctoral work in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Professor Zheng is a member of MRS, ACS and combustion institute. Professor Zheng received the TR35 Award from the MIT Technology Review (2013), one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers by the Foreign Policy Magazine (2013), 3M Nontenured Faculty Grant Award (2013), the Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) from the white house (2009), Young Investigator Awards from the ONR (2008), DARPA (2008), Terman Fellowship from Stanford (2007), and Bernard Lewis Fellowship from the Combustion Institute (2004).
-
James Zou
Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, of Computer Science and of Electrical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy group works on both foundations of statistical machine learning and applications in biomedicine and healthcare. We develop new technologies that make ML more accountable to humans, more reliable/robust and reveals core scientific insights.
We want our ML to be impactful and beneficial, and as such, we are deeply motivated by transformative applications in biotech and health. We collaborate with and advise many academic and industry groups. -
J. Bradley Zuchero
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are primarily focused on understanding myelinating glia (oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells). How is myelin formed, dynamically remodeled to support learning, and why does regeneration of myelin fail in disease? We are also interested in understanding novel roles of myelin in the nervous system, beyond its textbook role as an electrical insulator. We combine in vivo and primary culture models with the generation of new cell biology tools to answer these questions.
