Notable People 2014
December 2014
Howard Chang, MD
Chang, professor of dermatology, has been awarded the 2014 Judson Daland Prize from the American Philosophical Society. The $50,000 award recognizes outstanding achievement in patient-oriented research. Chang discovered the existence and functions of a new class of genes called long noncoding RNAs. He showed these genes control cell fates and are important in cancer and regenerative medicine.
Albert Cheung, MD
Cheung was appointed professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Sept. 1. He is chief of the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Anesthesia. Previously, he served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania for 24 years. He focuses on cardiovascular surgical care, perioperative echocardiography, cardiovascular pharmacology, brain protection for thoracic aortic operations and preventing and treating paraplegia after thoracic aortic aneurysm repair.
Elizabeth DiRenzo, PhD
DiRenzo was appointed assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, effective Oct. 1. She is a speech pathologist who works to evaluate and treat patients with voice, resonance, airway and swallowing disorders. Her research focuses on improving techniques to prevent and manage voice disorders.
Susan Frayne, MD, MPH
Frayne was appointed professor of medicine, effective May 1. She is the associate chief of women’s health at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and directs the VA Women’s Health Evaluation Initiative, which uses VA data to inform national programs and policies. She also directs the VA Women’s Health Practice-Based Research Network. Her research focuses on medical care for female veterans, particularly those with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Juliana Idoyaga, PhD
Idoyaga was appointed assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, effective July 1. She investigates the biology and function of dendritic cells. She is working to use these cells to develop safer and more efficient vaccines and immunotherapies to treat infectious diseases, cancer, chronic inflammation and autoimmune disorders.
Paul Johannet and Timothy Singer
Johannet and Singer, both medical students, received the 2014 Hematology Opportunities for the Next Generation of Research Scientists Award from the American Society of Hematology. The $5,000 awardsupports a hematology research project. Johannet investigated cell-signaling pathways in drug-resistant lymphoma cells. Singer studied the role of the bone marrow environment on the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukemia.
Kim Margolin, MD
Margolin was appointed professor of medicine, effective Oct. 1. She conducts clinical trials with a focus on melanoma and immunotherapy. She hopes to develop new therapies for melanoma by strengthening Stanford’s collaborations with outside research groups. She also leads the oncology fellowship program.
Brian Matesic
Matesic, a medical student, was awarded the $20,000 Robert S. Kaplan Life Sciences Fellowship at Harvard Business School. At Stanford, he worked to create a student-led consulting group that has completed more than 20 quality-improvement projects at Stanford Hospital. He also founded a health-care leadership and innovation course. At Harvard, he plans to earn a MBA with a focus on health-care systems redesign and delivery improvement.
Doff McElhinney, MD
McElhinney was appointed professor of cardiothoracic surgery, effective Aug. 1. He is a pediatric/congenital interventional cardiologist who directs clinical outcomes and translational research at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford Heart Center. He specializes in outcomes research, transcatheter device therapy and the management, diagnosis and pathophysiology of pediatric and adult congenital heart disease. He serves as the associate editor of Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions and chairs the Congenital Heart Disease Council of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.
Vinod Menon, PhD
Menon was appointed professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective May 1. He also holds the Rachael L. and Walter F. Nichols, MD, Professorship. He uses imaging and computational techniques to investigate the functional and structural architecture of cognitive networks in the brain. He also examines how disruptions in brain circuits affect behavior, cognition, emotion and learning in individuals with various disorders.
Sam Most, MD, FACS
Most received the 2014 F. Mark Rafaty Award for excellence in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He examines the outcomes of functional nasal surgery and models of facial nerve paralysis. He will serve as the vice president for research and development at the academy.
Seshadri Mudumbai, MD
Mudumbai was appointed assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Aug. 1. He directs the Veterans Health Administration informatics systems and perioperative analytics for the region including Northern California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam. His interests include outcomes research, pharmacoepidemiology (particularly of opioids) and perioperative informatics.
Kun Tae Park, MD
Park was appointed assistant professor of pediatrics, effective July 1. He plans to expand the reach of the Stanford Children’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center. His research focuses on developing tools to ensure clinicians adopt optimal strategies to treat chronic digestive diseases such as pediatric Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Sergiu Pasca, MD
Pasca, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, received the international MQ Fellows Award, an approximately $350,000 prize that aims to address gaps in the understanding of mental illness and to finance research transforming mental health treatment. Pasca uses cells from patients with schizophrenia to develop neurons in a novel, 3-D, culture-dish-based model of brain communication, with the goal of understanding disturbed cellular signaling and developing new ways to treat the disease.
Philip Pizzo, MD
Pizzo, professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology, was appointed to the board of Ludwig Cancer Research. Formerly the dean of the School of Medicine, Pizzo is currently focused on the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute, a project that aims to transform higher education to combine midlife redirection with health and wellness, with the goal of improving the quality of life for individuals and society while reducing the costs of long-term medical and social services for an aging society.
Vittorio Sebastiano, PhD
Sebastiano was appointed assistant professor (research) of obstetrics and gynecology, effective Nov. 1. His research focuses on understanding the biology of germ cells and their ability to sustain early phases of pre-implantation development, the mechanisms that regulate early cell fate decisions in human embryos and understanding the biology of pluripotent stem cells. He also directs the human pluripotent stem cells core facility.
Douglas Sidell, MD
Sidell was appointed assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, effective Sept. 1. He is interested in managing stenosis of the larynx and trachea, and treating children with voice and swallowing disorders. He will be part of the new multidisciplinary program to treat patients with complex airway, pulmonary and gastrointestinal disorders.
Sumeetha Swaminathan and Jack Prescott
Swaminathan, a senior at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, and Prescott, a junior at Pinewood High School in Los Altos Hills, were selected to present their research effort, “BetweenNet: A Method to Discover New Gene-Disease Associations,” at the American Medical Informatics Association Symposium in Washington, DC, in November. The students worked with Russ Altman, MD, PhD, professor of bioengineering, of genetics and of medicine, and with Steven Bagley, MD, MS, senior research engineer, to develop a computational method for identifying genes that may be involved in disease using the “social network” of gene relationships.
Dennis Wall, PhD
Wall, associate professor of pediatrics, was named one of the top 10 most innovative autism researchers by the Master’s in Special Education Program Guide. He uses machine learning and systems methods to detect, treat and track patients with autism spectrum disorders. His work focuses on reducing the time needed to screen at-risk children and to develop artificial intelligence strategies for at-home care, including one that runs on Google Glass.
Bo Wang, PhD
Wang was appointed assistant professor of bioengineering, effective May 1. He uses biophysical and genomic analyses to study the biology of flatworms, planarians and parasitic flukes. Using those models, Wang aims to quantitatively understand the rules that control collective stem cell behavior to optimize tissue regeneration, remolding and adaptation.
Lisa Williams, MD
Williams, a resident in physical medicine and rehabilitation, was named an American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine junior leadership liaison. She will assist the board members in providing leadership in neuromuscular medicine and neurophysiology. She also plans to serve on the graduate medical education committee and the membership committee.
Virginia Winn, MD
Winn was appointed associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, effective July 1. She directs Stanford’s perinatal biology program. Her research focuses on human placental development, both normal and abnormal, particularly related to pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia. She also investigates the effect of pregnancy on the maternal endothelium and immune system.
Samuel Yang, MD, FACEP
Yang was appointed associate professor of surgery, effective Sept. 1. He focuses on developing molecular diagnostic technologies for acute care medicine by using molecular, sensor and microfluidic technologies to detect and characterize pathogens. He also works to discover epigenetic and transcriptional biomarkers to improve the diagnosis and treatment of systemic illnesses.
Roham Zamanian, MD
Zamanian was appointed associate professor of medicine, effective Oct. 1. He directs the adult pulmonary hypertension program, which provides complex care for pulmonary hypertension patients, and conducts research. He specializes in evaluating therapies with mechanistic relevance to pulmonary hypertension and developing related biomarkers.
November 2014
Jonathan Berek, MD, MMS
Berek delivered the 19th annual Robert C. Knapp, MD, Lecture at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Oct. 14. Berek spoke about the immunotherapy of ovarian cancer. The endowed lectureship honors Knapp, the first director of gynecologic oncology at the Boston Hospital for Women and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Berek, the Laurie Kraus Lacob Professor, is professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology.
David Drover, MD
Drover was promoted to professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Sept. 1. Drover conducts clinical research on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs that require specialized monitoring. Using modeling, he aims to develop methods to obtain real-time data on a drug’s effect on a patient. He is currently focusing on developing medication guidelines for children and other difficult-to-study patients.
Dan Eisenberg, MD, MS
Eisenberg was appointed associate professor of surgery, effective Sept. 1. Eisenberg examines the outcomes of bariatric surgery in veterans and high-risk patients, and focuses on improving the surgical care of obese patients. He is also the director of bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.
Pamela Flood, MD
Flood was appointed professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective May 1. Her research interests focus on the intersection of gender, pain, pharmacology and neurobiology. She will continue working as an anesthesiologist while researching obstetrical pain.
Mark Hlatky, MD
Hlatky, professor of health research and policy and of cardiovascular medicine, received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Heart Association on Nov. 16 for being an “internationally recognized leader in comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of medical interventions and technologies.” Hlatky’s pioneered the collection of data on economic factors and quality of life as part of randomized trials, now a standard practice, and he has developed models to assess the effectiveness of many clinical strategies.
Alan Schatzberg, MD
Schatzberg, the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, received the Golden Kraepelin Medal from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. He discovered the role of cortisol in psychotic depression and developed a method to treat the debilitating disease. He directs the Stanford Mood Disorders Center.
Joseph Shrager, MD
Shrager was appointed professor of cardiothoracic surgery, effective Sept. 1. He is also chief of the school’s thoracic surgery division and physician leader of the thoracic oncology disease management group at the Stanford Cancer Center. His research has identified many of the causes of ventilator-associated diaphragm atrophy. He is also working to identify the best surgical approaches for lung cancer in nonsmokers. He serves on the editorial board of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
Hans-Christoph Becker, MD
Becker was appointed professor of radiology, effective Oct. 1. He will be part of the cardiovascular- and body-imaging group. His research focuses on myocardial perfusion imaging by computed tomography, radiation protection and surveys. He is interested in meta-analysis and epidemiological studies in the field of cardiac CT and aims to establish standardized reporting in oncology with the 3-D lab. In basic science, Becker wants to develop a new liposomal-coated iodinated contrast agent for computed tomography.
Ami Bhatt, MD, PhD
Bhatt was appointed assistant professor of medicine and of genetics, effective Oct 1. She is interested in improving outcomes in patients with blood malignancies by characterizing the dynamics of the microbiome in immunocompromised individuals, and exploring how changes in the microbiome are associated with idiopathic diseases in this population. Bhatt also serves as director of global oncology for Stanford’s Center for Innovation in Global Health.
Kwabena Boahen, PhD
Boahen was promoted to professor of bioengineering, effective July 1. His research interests include linking high-level brain functions to low-level biophysical mechanisms through large-scale neural models; developing novel computing architectures inspired by the brain’s fault tolerance and energy efficiency; and designing implantable information-processing devices for neuro-motor prostheses. He directs Stanford’s Brains in Silicon laboratory.
Lorinda Chung, MD, MS
Chung was appointed associate professor of medicine, effective Sept. 1. She is the director of the Stanford Scleroderma Center and co-director of the Rheumatologic Dermatology Clinic. Her research includes clinical, translational and epidemiologic studies on systemic sclerosis, dermatomyositis and related connective-tissue diseases. In particular, she is interested in the discovery and validation of novel biomarkers to provide information on diagnosis, prognosis and treatment response in these diseases.
Sharon Geaghan, MD
Geaghan, associate professor emerita of pathology, was appointed to the Centers for Disease Control Laboratory Medicine Best Practices Workgroup for 2014-16. This federal initiative, launched in 2006, aims to establish an evidence-based process for identifying best practices for quality improvement in the nation’s laboratories. The workgroup has 13 members with expertise in laboratory practice, health-services research, clinical practice, evidence-based reviews and health policy.
Harcharan Gill, MD
Gill was promoted to professor of urology, effective Sept. 1. His research interest is in benign prostatic hyperplasia, with a focus on developing and evaluating new minimally invasive techniques for managing the condition. In his clinical practice, he provides care to patients with all urologic cancers. Gill is the program director for the Department of Urology and is a member of the Stanford Hospital Graduate Medical Education Committee.
Eric Gross, MD, PhD
Gross was appointed assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Sept. 1. His laboratory studies how opioids reduce myocardial injury, and how the pathways of nociception and cardioprotection are linked in order to design next-generation analgesics that are safe to use for those with cardiovascular disease. Gross is also a clinical anesthesiologist.
Casey Halpern, MD
Halpern was appointed assistant professor of neurosurgery, effective Sept. 1. He specializes in deep-brain stimulation and minimally invasive surgery for epilepsy, in addition to surgical treatments for chronic pain, facial pain and spine disease. He is particularly interested in developing clinical trials that expand indications for deep-brain stimulation. Halpern’s research investigates the potential efficacy and mechanisms of deep-brain stimulation for novel neurologic and psychiatric indications, and even obesity.
Joshua Knowles, MD, PhD
Knowles was appointed assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine, effective Sept 1. Much of his work focuses on discovery of genetic variants underlying cardiovascular disease through large, international studies, followed by modeling the effects of these genes in experimental systems. He is working to translate these findings to the clinic in a randomized trial asking if people will change behavior based on information about their inherited risk of heart disease.
Desiree LaBeaud, MD, MS
LaBeaud was appointed associate professor of pediatrics, effective Oct. 2. She is interested in the epidemiology of mosquito-borne viral infections; the development of rapid, field-deployable diagnostic tests; and the environmental, genetic and immunologic determinants of the disease spectrum. Her research focuses on the burden, risk factors and long-term disease consequences of arboviral infections, with a particular focus on children in Kenya.
Curtis Langlotz, MD, PhD
Langlotz was appointed professor of radiology, effective July 1. His research uses machine learning, automated reasoning and other computational methods to improve the accuracy of radiology interpretation and the resulting clinical communication. His laboratory’s translational approach enables rapid evaluation and dissemination of the resulting technology. He will also serve as associate chair for information technology in the Department of Radiology and as medical informatics director for radiology at Stanford Health Care.
Sanjiv Narayan, MD, PhD
Narayan was appointed professor of medicine, effective Sept. 1. He also serves as director of the atrial fibrillation program and director of electrophysiology research. His clinical practice focuses on treating patients with atrial fibrillation and other complex heart-rhythm disorders by ablation. His specialty is the use of mechanistically focused techniques that his lab has developed. Narayan has pioneered the development of mapping and ablation of human rotors, which are organized circuits that may drive the “chaos” of both atrial and ventricular fibrillation in many patients.
Maria Polyakova, PhD
Polyakova was appointed assistant professor of health research and policy, effective Sept. 1. She is a health economist whose research focuses on exploring the role of public policies and regulatory interventions in health insurance systems. Her recent work has examined individual choices, the allocation of risk and insurance contract structure in Medicare Part D.
Manu Prakash, PhD
Prakash, assistant professor of bioengineering, was named as one of Technology Review’s 35 innovators under 35 for 2014. Prakash was chosen for introducing two novel science tools made from everyday materials — the Foldscope, a paper microscope that costs less than a dollar, and a $5 programmable kid’s chemistry set.
Sushma Reddy, MD
Reddy was appointed assistant professor of pediatrics, effective Aug. 1. Her clinical interests are in the care of children with critical cardiac disease in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Her research focuses on microRNA regulation of right-heart failure, and the development of biomarkers of disease progression in children with congenital heart disease.
Thomas Robinson, MD
Robinson, professor of pediatrics and of medicine, has been inducted as an honorary member of the Mexican Academy of Surgery.. The academy advises the Mexican federal government on health and social-politics matters, and is an academic leader in health issues for governmental and higher education institutions. The academy presented the honor in recognition of Robinson’s scientific and clinical contributions to combating childhood obesity.
Kristin Sainani, PhD
Sainani was appointed associate professor (teaching) of health research and policy, effective May 1. She specializes in teaching and writing about science and statistics. She teaches two popular massive open online courses, Statistics in Medicine and Writing in the Sciences, on OpenEdX.
October 2014
Derek Amanatullah, MD, PhD
Amanatullah was appointed assistant professor of orthopedic surgery, effective Oct. 1. He will be part of the arthritis and joint replacement service, bringing his expertise in hip and knee replacement to treat individuals with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, infectious arthritis and avascular necrosis. He also performs revision surgeries of hip and knee implants with problems. His research focuses on early diagnosis of degenerative joint disease and outcomes of total joint arthroplasty.
Christina Curtis, PhD, MSc
Curtis was appointed assistant professor of medicine and of genetics, effective Sept 1. Her research uses innovative experimental and computational approaches to characterize the dynamics of tumor progression and therapeutic resistance, as well as the complex relationship between genotype and molecular phenotype. She also serves as co-director of the molecular tumor board at the Stanford Cancer Institute.
Jeremy Dahl, PhD
Dahl was appointed assistant professor of radiology, effective Aug. 1. Dahl develops ultrasound beam-forming methods and builds ultrasound imaging systems and devices. His research interests include acoustic noise and suppression in diagnostic ultrasound imaging; modeling of ultrasound propagation and noise sources; real-time adaptive beam-forming and imaging systems; and small-scale ultrasound transducers for high acoustic output.
Sean David, MD, DPhil
David was appointed associate professor of medicine, effective Aug. 1. He is interested in the nexus between translational research to improve preventive-health measures and the integration of public health and primary care strategies to improve population health. His research focuses on biomarkers of smoking cessation, pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine evaluated by clinical trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Polly Fordyce, PhD
Fordyce was appointed assistant professor of genetics, effective Sept. 1. Her lab is focused on developing new instrumentation and assays for making quantitative, systems-scale biophysical measurements of molecular interactions. She is also a fellow of the ChEM-H Institute.
Steven Lin, MD
Lin, clinical instructor of medicine, has been named “Family Physician of the Month” by the California Academy of Family Physicians, the largest primary care medical society in California. Lin earned a medical degree from Stanford and completed his family medicine residency at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose. He is the founding director of the O’Connor-Stanford Leaders in Education Residency Program, the co-medical director of Arbor Free Clinic and an associate instructor for Educators-4-CARE.
Matthew Mell, MD
Mell was appointed associate professor of surgery, effective Aug. 1. His research interests focus on health policy and comparative effectiveness of health-care delivery for vascular conditions, including optimizing outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Mell serves as medical director of the Stanford Vascular Center, co-chair of the Stanford Health Care Clinic Advisory Council, and is a contributing committee member of national academic vascular societies.
Linda Ritter, RN
Ritter, a longtime nurse in the Bass Childhood Cancer Center at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, has been honored by Nurse.com as a national winner of the 2014 Giving Excellence Meaning Award in the inpatient clinical nursing category. Each year, Nurse.com conducts a nationwide search for the best in nursing. Ritter, a nurse since 1982, was chosen for her extraordinary leadership in improving palliative care education at the Bass Center.
Edward Sheen, MD, MPH, MBA
Sheen, a clinical fellow in gastroenterology and hepatology, has been appointed by President Barack Obama as one of the 15 members of the 2014-15 class of White House fellows, based on his record of professional achievement, evidence of leadership potential and proven commitment to public service. Sheen serves as executive chair and senior partner of the Stanford Health-Care Consulting Group and course director of Leadership and Strategies for Health-Care Delivery Innovation, a course offered by the School of Medicine. In the California State Assembly, he served on the Health Committee staff, where he authored and coordinated Medicaid legislation and supported oversight of health reform implementation, including Covered California.
Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD
Bhattacharya has been promoted to professor of medicine, effective Aug. 1. His research focuses on the constraints that vulnerable populations face in making decisions that affect their health status, as well as the effects of government policies and programs designed to benefit vulnerable populations.
Stanley Yung Liu, MD, DDS
Liu has been appointed assistant professor of otolaryngology, effective Sept. 1. He will be part of the Sleep Surgery Division, bringing his expertise in facial skeletal surgery to treat patients with obstructive sleep apnea. He will also perform skeletal reconstructive surgery for patients with congenital maxillofacial deformity and facial trauma. His research focuses on neurocognitive outcomes of sleep apnea patients after surgical intervention.
Maurice Ohayon, MD, DSc, PhD
Ohayon has been appointed professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, with tenure, effective Aug. 1. The main focus of his research is the epidemiology of sleep and psychiatric disorders. He serves as chief of the Division of Public Mental Health and Population Sciences and director of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center.
Lucy Shapiro, PhD
Shapiro, the Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor at the medical school and director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine, will receive the 2014 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize. The annual award, which celebrates the achievements of outstanding women in science, will be presented on Nov. 11 at Rockefeller University in New York City. Shapiro is being honored for her pioneering work on the single-celled Caulobactor bacterium, which illuminated the mechanisms that control the differentiation of cells in all living things, from the simplest organisms to the most complex.
September 2014
Seth Ammerman, MD
Ammerman, clinical professor of pediatrics and medical director of Mobile Adolescent Health Services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, received a Bay Area Jefferson Award, which honors public service achievements in local communities. He was chosen for his role in providing free, comprehensive health-care services to uninsured and homeless youth through the hospital’s Teen Health Van. He founded the program in 1996
Mark Berry, MD
Berry was appointed associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery, effective Aug. 1. His work focuses on all aspects of thoracic surgery, including procedures for benign and malignant conditions of the lung, esophagus and mediastinum. He has a particular interest in minimally invasive techniques, and has extensive experience in treating thoracic surgical conditions using video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical, laparoscopic, robotic, endoscopic and bronchoscopic approaches. Berry is also co-director of the Stanford Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery Center.
Lisa Chamberlain, MD, MPH
Chamberlain was promoted to associate professor of pediatrics, effective Sept. 1. She is interested in child health disparities and health policy. She serves as director of the scholarly concentration in community health at the medical school, as well as medical director of the Pediatric Advocacy Program.
Jeffrey Feinstein, MD, MPH
Feinstein was promoted to professor of pediatrics, effective Aug. 1. His research interests include computer simulation and modeling of cardiovascular physiology, with specific attention to congenital heart disease and its treatment; and the evaluation and treatment of pulmonary hypertension/pulmonary vascular disease and structural abnormalities of the pulmonary arteries as seen, for example, in Alagille syndrome.
Catherine Krawczeski, MD
Krawczeski was appointed associate professor of pediatrics, effective Aug. 1. She is medical director of the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Her research interests are in clinical outcomes after pediatric cardiopulmonary bypass, particularly its effects on the kidney.
Thomas Krummel, MD
Krummel, the Emile Holman Professor in Surgery, Susan B. Ford Surgeon-in-Chief at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and chair of the Department of Surgery, has been honored for his years of leadership in the department. He was given the 2014 Shumway Society Achievement Award in recognition of his outstanding service to, and leadership of, the department. He was also given the Golden Scalpel Award, which graduating chief surgery residents vote to give to the individual they feel has contributed most to the Stanford surgery residency.
Ruijiang Li, PhD
Li was appointed assistant professor (research) of radiation oncology, effective Sept. 1. His research is mainly focused on three areas: quantitative imaging biomarkers for prognosis and early prediction of response to cancer therapy; MRI-based radiation therapy treatment planning; and image-guided and adaptive radiation therapy.
Bruno Medeiros, MD
Medeiros was promoted to associate professor of medicine, effective Aug. 1. He is interested in the development of novel therapeutic regimens, translational research activities and epidemiological studies of acute myeloid leukemia. Medeiros’ special focus is on the development of better, patient-tailored therapies for young and elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia.
Manu Prakash, PhD
Prakash, assistant professor of bioengineering and a prolific inventor of low-cost scientific tools, has been named one of Popular Science magazine’s “Brilliant 10” for 2014 — an award that recognizes the nation’s brightest young minds in science and engineering. “Prakash’s inventions may be designed to address complicated problems, but their low cost and simple designs make them accessible to everyone,” according to the magazine.
Meredith Brooks, MD, MPH, and Sean Mackey, MD, PhD
Brooks, clinical assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, and Mackey, the Redlich Professor and professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, chief of the Division of Pain Management and co-director of the Stanford Pain Research and Clinical Center, have been selected as winners of the 2014-15 Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship. The program, which is in its 10th and final year, provides pain-care leaders with skills to communicate effectively about pain, the impact it has on quality of life and its implications on clinical and policy issues. Brooks and Mackey will learn how to connect with local and national media, write opinion articles, use social media and educate members of Congress and other policymakers about pain-care research and treatment.
Uri Ladabaum, MD, MS
Ladabaum was promoted to professor of medicine, effective July 1. He is interested in gastrointestinal cancer prevention and risk management; risk stratification; cost-effectiveness analysis; and health-services research. He also serves as director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Prevention Program.
Kimford Meador, MD
Meador was appointed professor of neurology and neurological sciences, effective July 1. His research interests include cognitive mechanisms, such as memory and attention; cerebral lateralization; pharmacology and physiology of cognition; epilepsy; functional imaging; therapeutic drug trials; and neuropsychiatric disorders. Meador is clinical director of the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.
Max Wintermark, MD
Wintermark was appointed professor of radiology, effective Aug. 1. He is interested in stroke, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, movement disorders and psychiatric disorders. Wintermark also serves as chief of neuroradiology.
Adam de la Zerda, PhD
De la Zerda, assistant professor of structural biology, received a 2014 Mary Kay Foundation cancer research grant, which is given to select doctors and medical scientists focusing on curing cancers that affect women. De la Zerda will receive $100,000 for his project aimed at developing a novel breast cancer diagnostic technology that can provide single-cell resolution in vivo.
August 2014
Maria Barna, PhD
Barna, assistant professor of genetics and of developmental biology, is one of 22 early career researchers who were named Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Pew Scholars program supports assistant professors with funding over four years to help them start their independent research careers. Barna’s lab investigates how complex, elaborately patterned tissues form during vertebrate embryonic development.
Zev Bryant, PhD, and Manu Prakash, PhD
Bryant and Prakash, both assistant professors of bioengineering, have received a $1 million medical research grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. Prakash and Bryant propose to determine how individual molecular components assemble into complex cellular-scale systems. Their test case will be to design dynamic functional assemblies of engineered molecular motors derived from naturally occurring proteins that transport molecules inside the cell.
Keren Hilgendorf, PhD, and Yin Liu, PhD
Hilgendorf and Liu have been named 2014 Damon Runyon Fellows by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting innovative early career researchers. The four-year award is given to postdoctoral scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators across the country.
Andrei Iagaru, MD
Iagaru was appointed associate professor of radiology, effective June 1. His research interests include PET/MRI and PET/CT scans for early cancer detection; clinical translation of novel PET radiopharmaceuticals; peptide-based diagnostic imaging and therapy; and radioimmunotherapy. He is co-chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
Quynh-Thu Le, MD
Le, the Katherine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor in the School of Medicine and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, has been named a fellow of the American Society for Radiation Oncology. Le is being recognized for her exceptional service to society and the field of radiation oncology. She will be honored in September during the society’s 56th annual meeting in San Francisco.
Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD
Mignot, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was awarded a $50,000 research grant from Wake Up Narcolepsy Inc., a nonprofit organization working to speed diagnosis of narcolepsy and help in the search for a cure. The grant, which was presented at an annual benefit event on June 20, will underwrite his continuing work on the genetic and environmental factors contributing to the development of narcolepsy.
Siu Ping Ngok, PhD, and Yujie Tang, PhD
Ngok and Tang have been awarded Young Investigator Grants from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, whose mission is to work toward better treatments and ultimately cures for all kids with cancer. Ngok and Tang will each receive $100,000 over two years to pursue promising research ideas. Ngok’s project is titled “Investigation of Oncogenic Long Non-coding RNAs in Ewing’s Sarcoma,” and Tang’s is titled “Targeting Aberrant Hh Signaling with BET Bromodomain Inhibition as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy Against MB and DIPG.”
Samuel So, MD
So, the Lui Hac Minh Professor in the School of Medicine, was honored July 30 by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and Office of National AIDS Policy for his leadership in the prevention and treatment of viral hepatitis. So is director of the Asian Liver Center at Stanford.
Eric Sokol, MD
Sokol was appointed associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, effective June 1. Sokol is co-chief of the Division of Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery. His research is focused on the development and testing of novel, minimally invasive treatment modalities for complex pelvic floor disorders, including fecal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence.
Elizabeth Trachtenberg, PhD
Trachtenberg was appointed professor of pathology, effective Jan. 1. She is also co-director of Stanford Blood Center’s Histocompatibility, Immunogenetics and Disease Profiling Laboratory.
Irving Weissman, MD
Weissman, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research and professor of pathology and of developmental biology, has been elected a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy. Fellowship recognizes exceptional contributions to cancer research or cancer-related biomedical science, or both.
Zhihao Wu, PhD
Wu, under the guidance of Bingwei Lu, PhD, associate professor of pathology, was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship by the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Wu, a postdoctoral scholar, will receive $50,000 in funding to work on a project titled “A Novel Function of PINK1/Parkin Pathway in Regulating Oxidative Phosphorylation Through mRNA Localization & Translational Control.”
Casey Crump, MD, PhD
Crump was appointed associate professor of medicine, effective July 1. Crump’s research focuses on identifying clinical and social determinants of health to enable better prevention, detection and treatment of disease. His current work includes a collaborative initiative between Stanford and Lund University in Sweden to identify perinatal, hereditary and environmental determinants of health using Swedish national health data.
Gary Hartman, MD
Hartman, clinical professor of surgery and chief of pediatric general surgery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, has received the 2014 Outstanding Achievement in Medicine Award from the Santa Clara County Medical Association for his leadership in surgical care and his longtime service to patients and their families.
Michelle Mello, PhD, JD
Mello was appointed professor of law and of health research and policy, effective July 1. She is a leading expert in the field of public health law whose empirical research focuses on understanding the effects of law and regulation on health-care delivery and population-health outcomes.
Daniel Palanker, PhD
Palanker was appointed professor of ophthalmology, effective July 1. His research focuses on interactions of electric fields and light with biological cells and tissues, and their applications to imaging, therapeutics and prosthetics, including phototherapy, laser surgery and electro-neural interfaces. He is also director of research in the Department of Ophthalmology.
Suzann Pershing, MD, MS
Pershing was appointed assistant professor of ophthalmology, effective June 1. Her research interests focus on evidence-based medicine, clinical outcomes and policy analysis, and care delivery systems. Pershing also serves as chief of ophthalmology and eye care services for the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.
Gregory Scherrer, PhD
Scherrer, assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, and of neurosurgery, has been named a 2014 Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, which recognizes biomedical scientists in the early stages of their careers who have the potential to make groundbreaking contributions to their fields. Scholars receive grants of up to $110,000 annually for a maximum of five years to pursue research. Scherrer investigates how neurons communicate with each other to generate pain sensation and how opioids such as morphine interfere with this communication to induce analgesia. His goal is to discover innovative strategies to develop new painkillers that will be more efficient and safer than morphine.
Mark Welton, MD, MHCM
Welton, the Harry A. Oberhelman Jr. Professor and professor of surgery, has been appointed a director to the American Board of Surgery. Welton, who is also Stanford Hospital’s chief of staff and chief of colorectal surgery, will serve a six-year term on the board, the national certifying body for general surgeons and related specialists.
july 2014
Maria Barna, PhD
Barna, assistant professor of genetics and of developmental biology, is one of 22 early-career researchers who were named Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Pew Scholars program supports assistant professors with funding over four years to help them start their independent research careers. Barna’s lab investigates how complex, elaborately patterned tissues form during vertebrate embryonic development.
Jonathan Berek, MD, MMS
Berek, the Laurie Kraus Lacob Professor and director of the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, has been inducted as a fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The distinction honors members for extraordinary service, dedication and commitment to cancer patients, cancer research and the society. Berek, chair of Stanford’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been editor-in-chief of ASCO Connection since 2004. He currently serves on the society’s scientific program committee and integrated media and technology committee.
Zhen Cheng, PhD
Cheng was promoted to associate professor (research) of radiology, effective May 1. The overall objective of his laboratory is to develop novel molecular imaging probes and techniques for noninvasive detection of cancer and its metastasis at the earliest stage, so that cancer can be cured or transformed into a chronic, manageable disease.
Alice Fan, MD
Fan was appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective May 1. She studies how turning off oncogenes can cause tumor regression in preclinical and clinical studies, with a focus on kidney cancer. Fan is also director of nano-immunoassay for the Department of Medicine’s Translational Applications Service Center.
Melanie Hayden, MD, MAS
Hayden was appointed assistant professor of neurosurgery, effective July 1. Her lab focuses on translational neuro-oncology research, combining basic neuroscience, genetics and tumor biology with insight into the pressing clinical questions facing patients with brain tumors. As a neurosurgeon, her practice is focused on tumors of the central nervous system and the surgical treatment of epilepsy.
Mark Hlatky, MD
Hlatky, professor of health research and policy and of cardiovascular medicine, has received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Heart Association Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. The award recognizes his significant long-term contributions to outcomes research and the improvement of cardiovascular care.
Philip Pizzo, MD
Pizzo, the David and Susan Heckerman Professor and professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology, has been elected to the board of directors of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Pizzo, former dean of the medical school, is a prominent member of the cancer research community, with more than 40 years of experience championing programs and policies to advance the future of science, education and pediatric oncology internationally.
Manu Prakash, PhD
Prakash, assistant professor of bioengineering, developed Foldscope, which has been selected as one of the winners of the 2014 R&D 100 Awards. The awards recognize and celebrate the 100 most significant high-technology products introduced in the past year. Winners are selected by the editors of R&D Magazine and an independent judging panel. Foldscope is an ultra-low-cost paper microscope that can be used to aid disease diagnosis in developing regions.
june 2014
Sarah Donaldson, MD
Donaldson, the Catharine and Howard Avery Professor in the School of Medicine, professor of radiation oncology and chief of the radiation oncology service, has received several accolades from various organizations: a medical staff distinguished service award from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, the Luminary Leadership Award from the Radiology Leadership Institute of the American College of Radiology, and honorary memberships in the European Society of Radiology, the French Society of Radiology and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. In addition, she will deliver the keynote lecture Oct. 15 at an international colloquium for alumni of the department of radiation oncology at the Institut Gustave Roussy.
Drew Endy, PhD
Endy was promoted to associate professor of bioengineering, effective June 1. A leader in the field of synthetic biology, Endy is also co-founder and president of BioBricks.org, a charity advancing biotechnology. The organization has underwritten an open, technical-standards-setting process for synthetic biology, and recently developed a legal contract for making genetic materials free to share and use.
Stephen Galli, MD
Galli, the Mary Hewitt Loveless, MD, Professor in the School of Medicine, professor of microbiology and immunology, and professor and chair of pathology, has received the 2014 Rous-Whipple Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology, as well as the Karl Landsteiner Medal from the Austrian Society of Allergology and Immunology. The Rous-Whipple Award is given to a senior scientist with a distinguished career in research who has advanced the understanding of disease. The Landsteiner Medal recognizes outstanding scientific contributions in immunology. It’s named after an Austrian pathologist who first distinguished the main blood groups in 1900.
Ira Glick, MD
Glick, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has received the 2014 Kun-Po Soo Award from the American Psychiatric Foundation. The award, which includes a $1,000 honorarium, recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions toward understanding the impact and import of Asian cultural heritage in areas relevant to psychiatry.
Miriam Goodman, PhD
Goodman, associate professor of molecular and cellular physiology, has received the 2014 Michael and Kate Bárány Award for Young Investigators from the Biophysical Society. She was chosen for her innovative and creative interdisciplinary work on fundamental biophysical questions of mechanotransduction.
Ruth Lathi, MD
Lathi was promoted to associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, effective May 1. Her research interests include recurrent pregnancy loss, reproductive genetics and optimizing infertility treatments. She serves as director of the Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Program within the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and associate director of the division’s fellowship program.
Billy Loo Jr., MD, PhD
Loo was promoted to associate professor of radiation oncology, effective May 1. He specializes in radiation treatment of lung cancer and head and neck cancer, and serves as leader of the Thoracic Radiation Oncology Program. Loo is also co-chair of the new technologies committee in radiation oncology. His laboratory research is on next-generation radiation therapy technology and techniques.
Marc Melcher MD, PhD
Melcher was promoted to associate professor of surgery, effective May 1. The goal of his research is to extend the benefits of organ transplant to greater numbers of patients with organ failure. He has developed a paired-kidney exchange program at Stanford to increase the chances that patients with willing but incompatible living donors receive a living donor kidney. He serves as program director of the Stanford surgery residency and associate program director of the Stanford multi-organ transplant fellowship.
Michael Ostacher, MD, MPH, MMSc
Ostacher was promoted to associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective May 1. His major research interest is the treatment and understanding of bipolar disorder, with a particular focus on the impact of co-occurring substance-use disorders. He also focuses on educating clinicians to use evidence to improve treatment in psychiatric disorders. He is co-chair of the bipolar disorder task group of the National Network of Depression Centers and associate editor of Evidence-Based Mental Health.
Geoffrey Sonn, MD
Sonn was appointed assistant professor of urology, effective May 1. His primary interest is in improving prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment through MRI, image-targeted prostate biopsy and image-guided focal therapy. He is also interested in developing novel molecular imaging techniques, such as near-infrared-fluorescence imaging to improve surgery for prostate and kidney cancer.
Dennis Wall, PhD
Wall was appointed associate professor of pediatrics, effective May 1. His lab is developing novel approaches in systems biology to decipher the molecular pathology of autism spectrum disorder and related neurological conditions.
May 2014
Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD
Deisseroth, the D.H Chen Professor and professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, is featured in the latest issue of MIT Technology Review, which highlights the 10 most important technology milestones of the past year. Deisseroth is included for his work in pioneering the technique CLARITY, which can convert biological systems into a fully transparent form, allowing researchers to visualize and study the brain's three-dimensional structure and circuitry using standard molecular probes.
Kate Lorig, RN, DrPH
Lorig, professor emerita of medicine and director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center, is one of 13 inaugural members of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's Advisory Panel on Rare Disease. As a member, Lorig will apply her experience and expertise to advising the institute on its research priorities in the area of rare disease, as well as on engaging with the rare-disease research community.
Joseph Puglisi, PhD
Puglisi, professor and chair of structural biology, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, an honorific society of distinguished scientists and engineers. Puglisi investigates the role of RNA in cellular processes and disease, with the goal of understanding RNA function in terms of molecular structure and dynamics using a variety of biophysical and biological tools.
Kipp Weiskopf
Weiskopf, an MD/PhD student, has been awarded one of five nationally competitive 2014 Research Scholar Awards from the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation. The $10,000 grants support exceptional graduate student melanoma research.
Gill Bejerano, PhD
Bejerano was promoted to associate professor of developmental biology, effective March 1. His research focuses on genome sequence and function in both humans and related primate, mammalian and vertebrate species. He is interested in mapping both coding and noncoding genome sequence variation to phenotype differences, and in extracting specific genetic insights from high-throughput sequencing measurements, in the contexts of development and developmental abnormalities.
Mark Buyyounouski, MD
Buyyounouski was appointed associate professor of radiation oncology, effective Oct. 1.
Ka Yam Chak, PhD
Chak, a postdoctoral scholar in neurology and neurological sciences, was part of a Stanford team that recently won fourth place in the Breast Cancer Startup Challenge. The event, held by the Avon Foundation for Women in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute and the Center for Advancing Innovation, challenged 200 teams to develop new technologies with the potential to advance breast cancer research. The Stanford team worked with a researcher at the institute to develop a new antibody-drug conjugate that would act as a treatment against breast cancer.
Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD
Halpern-Felsher was promoted to professor (research) of pediatrics, effective March 1. She is interested in cognitive and psychosocial factors involved in adolescents' and young adults' health-related decision-making, perceptions of risk and vulnerability, health communication, and risk behavior. Her research has helped change how providers discuss sexual risk with adolescents and has influenced national policies regulating adolescent and young-adult tobacco use. Halpern-Felsher also serves as director of research and associate director of the adolescent medicine fellowship training program.
Ruth O'Hara, PhD
O'Hara was appointed associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, with tenure, effective April 1. (She previously held a nontenure-line position.) Her research aims to identify physiological markers of neurocognitive impairment in a broad range of psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, mild cognitive impairment and late-life depression and anxiety.
Manu Prakash, PhD
Prakash, assistant professor of bioengineering, and graduate student George Korir recently won a contest to develop the 21st-century chemistry set. The Science Play and Research Kit Competition was jointly sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Society for Science & the Public. The team won a $50,000 award toward further developing the $5 chemistry set aimed at inspiring young scientists and addressing developing-world problems, such as water quality.
Stephen Quake, PhD
Quake, the Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering, professor of bioengineering and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, is one of 11 Stanford professors recently elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The academy is one of the country's oldest and most prestigious honorary learned societies, and a leading center for independent policy research.
Debra Safer, MD
Safer was promoted to associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective March 1. Her primary research interests include the nature and treatment of eating disorders (particularly bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder), the development and treatment of obesity, and the development and treatment of problematic eating patterns in patients following bariatric surgery.
David Spiegel, MD
Spiegel, the Jack, Samuel and Lulu Willson Professor and professor and associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, is the recipient of the 2014 Joan and Stanford Alexander Award in Psychiatry. The award was established in honor of Stuart Yudofsky, MD, professor and chair of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, who was also its first recipient. Spiegel, who was chosen for his research on stress and health, accepted the award April 30 and presented a lecture titled "Mind Matters: Stress, Support and Cancer Survival."
April 2014
Jeffrey Axelrod, MD, PhD
Axelrod, professor of pathology, has been elected to the American Association of University Pathologists. The association is an informal academic organization of biomedical scientists who are dedicated to unraveling mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. Members meet annually to share research advances via short informal presentations and to socialize with like-minded scientists.
Matthew Bogyo, PhD
Bogyo, professor of pathology and of microbiology and immunology, has been elected to the American Association of University Pathologists. The association is an informal academic organization of biomedical scientists who are dedicated to unraveling mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. Members meet annually to share research advances via short informal presentations and to socialize with like-minded scientists.
Aaron Gitler, PhD
Gitler, associate professor of genetics, has received a neuromuscular disease research grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Gitler will use the $252,000 grant for a project titled, "Defining a novel role of profilin 1 in ALS pathogenesis."
James Lock, MD, PhD
Lock has been appointed professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, with tenure, effective April 1. (His previous professorship appointment was untenured.) Much of his work over the past 15 years has been focused on developing a research program for eating disorders in children and adolescents. He serves as director of the Stanford Child and Adolescent Eating Disorder Program in the Division of Child Psychiatry.
Atul Butte, MD, PhD
Butte, associate professor of systems medicine in pediatrics and of genetics, is one of two recipients of the 2014 E. Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research from the Society for Pediatric Research. The award will be presented in Vancouver, Canada, on May 5. It recognizes Butte's contributions to biomedical informatics, including his use of public-access data to discover new diagnostics, therapeutics and insights into disease.
Serena Hu, MD
Hu has been appointed professor of orthopaedic surgery, effective Feb. 1. She also has been appointed chief of the department's spine service. Her research interests include improving the outcomes and cost effectiveness of spine surgery, as well as evaluating and mitigating the risk factors for surgical complications. She is also interested in disc repair and the imaging of the painful intervertebral discs.
Kelly Ormond, MS
Ormond, a certified genetic counselor, has been promoted to professor (teaching) of genetics, effective Feb. 1. Her research interests involve the translation of new genetic technologies — for example, genomic sequencing and noninvasive prenatal testing — into clinical practice, and ethical issues surrounding genomic technologies. She is program director of the master's program in human genetics and genetic counseling and a member of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics.
Jong Yoon, MD
Yoon, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, received the David Mahoney Neuroimaging Grant from the Dana Foundation. The goal of Yoon's research grant is to improve the detection of the onset of schizophrenia so that early interventions can be implemented.
March 2014
Laura Attardi, MD
Attardi has been promoted to professor of radiation oncology and of genetics, effective Feb. 1. Her research involves the p53 tumor suppressor gene, which plays a crucial role in protecting organisms from developing cancer. She is working to understand the mechanism of p53 action and the role of target genes it activates in tumor suppression and developmental diseases.
Scott Ceresnak, MD
Ceresnak has been appointed assistant professor of pediatrics, effective Feb. 1. His research and clinical interests involve arrhythmias and the implantation, care and management of pacemakers and defibrillators in children and patients with congenital heart disease. His primary research interest relates to novel methods of signal analysis to assist with ablation in children with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.
Utkan Demirci, PhD
Demirci has been appointed associate professor of radiology, effective March 1. Demirci focuses on creating new micro- and nano-scale bioengineering and biomedical microfluidic technology platforms, with an emphasis on broad biotechnology applications in medicine.
Nicolas Grillet, PhD
Grillet has been appointed assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, effective April 1. His research focuses on identifying genes causing deafness and understanding their function at the molecular level. His specific interests include the structure and function of hair cells — the inner-ear sensory cells that are stimulated by sound and head-motion. Malfunction of these cells is a common cause of many forms of hearing loss.
Albert Koong, MD
Koong has been promoted to professor of radiation oncology, effective Feb. 1. His clinical research interests involve developing and integrating advanced radiotherapy techniques into the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies. His laboratory interests focus on developing therapies that target hypoxia and endoplasmic-reticulum stress activated pathways in cancer. He serves as the associate chair for clinical operations in the Department of Radiation Oncology.
David Larson, MD
Larson was appointed associate professor of radiology, effective July 1. He is interested in quality improvement in radiology, including developing skills, processes and technology to enable reliable performance in areas such as eliminating wrong-site procedures, communication between referring radiologists and referring clinicians, and CT-radiation-dose optimization. He also was named associate chair for performance improvement in the Radiology Department.
Craig Levin, MD
Levin has been appointed professor of radiology, effective Feb. 1. His research explores novel instrumentation and algorithms for in vivo imaging of molecular signatures of disease. He is affiliated with the Molecular Imaging Program, Bio-X, Biophysics Program, Cancer Institute and Cardiovascular Institute, and serves as director of the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory, director of the Molecular Imaging Scholars Program and as co-director of the Center for Innovation in In-Vivo Imaging.
Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research
The Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research has been designated a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization collaborating center. The Stanford center is directed by Mark Musen, MD, PhD, professor of biomedical informatics research. It is one of three nongovernmental organizations among the more than 800 collaborating WHO centers around the globe. It will develop classifications, terminologies and standards for the next generation of the International Classification of Diseases, the standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes.
Kipp Weiskopf
Weiskopf, an MD/PhD candidate in the Cancer Biology Program, is one of 13 graduate students chosen to receive the 2014 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, sponsored by the Basic Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Winners were selected on the basis of the quality, originality and significance of their work. Weiskopf will participate in a scientific symposium May 2 at the center, consisting of scientific presentations by the awardees. The award, established in 2000, honors Weintraub, PhD, a founding member of the center's Basic Sciences Division.
Bing Zhang, MD
Zhang, a resident in clinical pathology, received the 2013 Mary Rodes Gibson Memorial Award in Hemostasis and Thrombosis from the American Society of Hematology. The annual award recognizes a student, resident or postdoctoral scholar who is the lead author and presenter of the highest-scoring abstract submitted to the society's Outstanding Abstract Achievement Award Program. Zhang was recognized for the abstract titled "Identification of the Disease-Causing Mutation in Autosomal Dominant Familial Immune Thrombocytopenia by Genome-Wide Linkage Analysis and Whole Genome Sequencing."
David Breslow, PhD
Breslow, postdoctoral scholar in molecular and cellular physiology, received the 2014 Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists. The award provides additional funding to scientists completing a fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation who are most likely to make paradigm-shifting breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Breslow will receive $100,000 to be used toward his research.
Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD
Deisseroth, professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, received the 2013 Dickson Prize in Science. The prize, established in 1969, is awarded annually by Carnegie Mellon University for outstanding contributions to science. Deisseroth, who holds the D.H Chen Professorship, pioneered the technique known as optogenetics, in which neurons can be selectively activated or inhibited with pulses of light, and CLARITY, a process to convert biological systems into a fully transparent form, allowing researchers to visualize and study the brain's 3-D structure and circuitry using standard molecular probes.
Maurice Druzin, MD
Druzin, the Charles B. and Ann L. Johnson Professor, will be honored with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology's Council of District Chairs Service Recognition Award on April 27 during the organization's annual meeting in Chicago. The teacher, clinician and researcher, often called "the father of Stanford obstetrics," is the author of more than 100 publications and has been a leader in the California Maternal Care Collaborative's Pre-eclampsia Quality Improvement Collaborative.
Paul Fisher, MD
Fisher, chief of pediatric neurology at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, has been named an associate editor of The Journal of Pediatrics. He has been a member of the journal's editorial board since 2006. He is the Beirne Family Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology and chief of child neurology at the School of Medicine.
David Larson, MD
Larson was appointed associate professor of radiology, effective July 1. He is interested in quality improvement in radiology, including developing skills, processes and technology to enable reliable performance in areas such as eliminating wrong-site procedures, communication between referring radiologists and referring clinicians, and CT radiation dose optimization. He also was named associate chair of performance improvement in the Radiology Department.
Robert Poole, PharmD
Poole, director of pharmacy services at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, received the Stanley Serlick Award at the Clinical Nutrition Week 2014 Scientific Conference in January. The award recognizes a pharmacist who has made significant contributions to improving safe practices for parenteral nutrition through published literature, membership on national committees or task forces, and/or presentations at regional and national meetings.
Purna Prasad, PhD
Prasad, director of clinical technology and biomedical engineering at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and Stanford Hospital & Clinics, received the American College of Clinical Engineering's Professional Achievement in Management Award. He will accept the award in June during the Association for Advancement in Medical Instrumentation convention in Philadelphia.
Alan Schatzberg, MD
Schatzberg, the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is the recipient of the Anna-Monika Prize. Since 1994, the Anna-Monika Foundation has awarded prizes to scientists for outstanding research activities on the biological causes and functional disorders of depression. Schatzberg was chosen for his research into new therapy approaches, especially for the treatment of delusional depression.
Barbara Sourkes, PhD
Sourkes, professor of pediatrics and the John A. Kriewall and Elizabeth A. Haehl Director of Pediatric Palliative Care, has received the 2014 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Humanities Award. The award recognizes Sourkes' work in advancing the relationship between the humanities and palliative care, and for her authorship of books that exemplify how the arts can serve as an important tool in the care of seriously ill children.
Rohan Srivas, PhD
Srivas was named one of 15 new Damon Runyon Fellows. The three-year awards are given to postdoctoral scholars conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators across the country. Srivas, with his sponsor Michael Snyder, PhD, is studying the changes in the composition and function of the microbiome, bacteria inhabiting the human gut.
Abraham Verghese, MD
Verghese's novel Cutting for Stone has made the list of Amazon.com's "100 Books to Read in a Lifetime." The list features literature from the past 200 years, including Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Verghese, MD, vice chair for the theory and practice of medicine in the Department of Medicine and the Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor, is working on his second novel.
February 2014
Geoffrey Abrams, MD
Abrams has been appointed assistant professor of surgery, effective Dec. 1. His research focuses on the pathogenesis of cartilage loss and rotator cuff tears within the shoulder. Specific areas of focus include the role of synovitis and inflammation, as well as morphological characteristics as they relate to the development of these shoulder pathologies.
Philip Grant, MD
Grant has been appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective Jan. 1. His research focuses on complications of HIV and its therapy, including immune reconstitution inflammatory disease, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. He has clinical expertise in infectious diseases and provides primary care for HIV-infected individuals at the Stanford Positive Care Clinic.
Neeraja Kambham, MD
Kambham has been promoted to professor of pathology, effective Jan. 1. Her research interests primarily involve medical diseases of the native and transplant kidney. She also serves as residency program director in pathology, as well as co-director of the renal pathology and electron microscopy lab.
Steven Lindley, MD, PhD
Lindley has been promoted to associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Jan. 1. He is interested in advancing health and mental health care for psychiatric patients with disorders related to chronic and severe stress. As director of outpatient mental health for the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, his work focuses on psychiatric disorders in military veterans.
Andrew Rezvani, MD
Rezvani has been appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective Jan. 1. His primary clinical and research interests are in improving outcomes of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for patients with lymphoma. He is also interested in identifying biomarkers to predict the severity of graft-versus-host disease after bone marrow transplantation, and in alternative-donor transplantation using umbilical cord blood for patients who lack fully matched bone marrow donors.
Scott Soltys, MD
Soltys has been appointed assistant professor of radiation oncology, effective Jan. 1. His clinical and research interests focus on the development of new radiation techniques involving stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy for the treatment of malignant and benign tumors of the brain and spine, as well as of functional disorders such as trigeminal neuralgia.
Jean Tang, MD, PhD
Tang has been promoted to associate professor of dermatology, effective Jan. 1. Her research focuses on finding new ways to treat and prevent skin cancer. She recently received a Harrington scholar innovator award for her research on repurposing an antifungal drug for skin cancer prevention. The award, presented by University Hospitals Case Medical Center, provides up to $200,000 in financial support over two years to help bridge the gap between basic discovery and clinical introduction.
Dean Winslow, MD
Winslow, clinical professor of medicine, was awarded the Legion of Merit by the U.S. Air Force. The Legion of Merit is the highest peacetime medal in the military. At the same time, he was awarded the Air Medal, the NATO ISAF medal and the Air Force Combat Action medal.
Joseph Woo, MD
Woo has been appointed professor of cardiothoracic surgery, effective Jan. 1. He also serves as chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Woo's research encompasses basic, translational and clinical projects. His laboratory, funded by the National Institutes of Health, investigates new paths to myocardial repair through angiogenesis — the process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels — stem cells and tissue engineering.
January 2014
Vinod Bhutani, MD
Bhutani, professor of neonatology, has received two awards: the 2013 Neonatal Landmark Award, from the American Academy of Pediatrics, in recognition of his landmark contribution in in the area of bilirubin, including the development of the "Bhutani nomogram," which predicts the risk of a newborn infant developing jaundice based on readings of serum bilirubin and hours since birth; and the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Neonatology Forum of India.
Adam de la Zerda, PhD
De la Zerda, assistant professor of structural biology, is included in the science category of Forbes magazine's "30 under 30" for 2014. De la Zerda, 29, who also made last year's list, focuses on developing technologies to image the body at the molecular level and at unprecedented resolution.
Cigall Kadoch, PhD
Kadoch, a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Gerald Crabtree, PhD, is included in the science category of Forbes magazine's "30 under 30" for 2014. Kadoch, 28, studies how changes in the physical structure of DNA can lead to a particular type of cancer, synovial sarcoma. Her research has implications for other types of cancer and could someday lead to new treatments for cancer.
Oliver Dorigo, MD
Dorigo was appointed associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, effective July 1. He is interested in the treatment of patients with gynecologic cancers, including ovarian, cervical, endometrial, vaginal and vulva cancer. In addition to his clinical practice, he is committed to the development of innovative new therapies for patients with gynecologic malignancies, in particular immune therapy for ovarian cancer. Dorigo also serves as director of gynecologic oncology.
Gerald Grant, MD
Grant was appointed associate professor of neurosurgery, effective Oct. 1. His clinical interests focus on the surgical treatment of children with pediatric brain tumors and intractable epilepsy. He is an expert in pediatric brain mapping. His research focuses on finding novel ways to modulate the blood-brain barrier to augment drug delivery to the brain to better treat pediatric brain tumors.
Keith Humphreys, PhD
Humphreys was promoted to professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with tenure, effective Dec. 1. (His previous appointment was untenured.) His research focuses on interventions for substance abuse and psychiatric disorders. He focuses particularly on evaluating the outcomes of professionally administered treatments and peer-operated self-help groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, developing health services research-related applications for innovative qualitative and quantitative research techniques, and analyzing national mental health policy.
Lianne Kurina, PhD
Kurina was appointed associate professor (teaching) of medicine, effective Dec. 1. Her research projects include a study of sleep among older Americans, and a study of health and disability trajectories among active-duty U.S. Army soldiers.
Patricia Nguyen, MD
Nguyen was appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective Oct. 1. She is interested in applying imaging technology to translate promising basic science findings into clinical applications and to gain a better understanding of coronary artery disease in men and women.
Stephen Quake, PhD
Quake, the Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering and professor of bioengineering and of applied physics, has been named inventor of the year by the Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Law Association for discovering ways to extract information from DNA. Quake has pioneered the analysis of DNA fragments that spill out of dead cells and has devised techniques to fish these fragments out of the bloodstream and use them as clues to diagnose a variety of ailments, including cancer.
David Studdert, LLB, ScD, MPH
Studdert was appointed professor of medicine and of law, effective Nov. 1. Studdert is a leading expert in the fields of health law and empirical legal research. His scholarship explores how the legal system influences the health and well-being of populations.
Edith Sullivan, PhD
Sullivan was promoted professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with tenure, effective Dec. 1. (Her previous appointment was untenured.) Her research focuses on the application of magnetic resonance imaging modalities and component process analysis of cognitive, sensory and motor functions to identify brain structural and functional mechanisms disrupted in neurodegenerative conditions (such as alcoholism, Alzheimer's disease, HIV infection and normal aging).
Minang (Mintu) Turakhia, MD, MAS
Turakhia was appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective Oct. 1. His research program uses large-scale data sets to evaluate the quality of care, effectiveness and risk of drug- and device-based therapies for heart-rhythm disorders. He also serves as director of cardiac electrophysiology at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.
