PRISM Mentors

In the Planetary Modeling Group, we use a variety of modeling techniques to study planets near and far. We focus on the interaction between the interiors and atmospheres of rocky planets both in the Solar System and around other stars. We study the birth and differentiation of planets, the exotic lava worlds of the exoplanet population, but also questions about the environment of the early Earth and other potentially habitable planets and how those planets evolve due to geology, stellar influences, and life.

Our research aims to improve population health by creating high quality evidence about what health interventions work in whom and where, when, and how to implement them. Most of our research is focused on infectious diseases, including malaria, diarrhea, soil-transmitted helminths, and influenza. Our focus is on improving the health of vulnerable populations from low-resource settings, both domestically and internationally. We use a variety of epidemiologic, computational, and statistical methods, including causal inference and machine learning methods.

Our group investigates prenatal and early-life determinants of health and disease. We conduct epidemiological analyses of human cohorts to investigate chemical (e.g. metals, endocrine disruptors, air pollution, climate change) and non-chemical stressors (e.g. adversity, discrimination) and their relationships to human health and development. We use computational and bioinformatics approaches to study epigenetic and DNA methylation biomarkers in humans. Our group also has a special interest in human aging and epigenetic biomarkers of aging.

Trainees in our group develop skills in computational biology, environmental mixtures modeling, modeling of multi -omic data and machine learning.

We are a highly interdisciplinary group with a diverse set of research interests that span various areas of medicine and public health. These interests include i) the use of novel causal inference techniques in electronic health record data to assess the real-life effectiveness of clinical (e.g., medications), behavioral, and health services interventions; ii) deep learning in satellite imagery and other publicly available geotagged data sources to monitor health indicators in low- and middle-income countries; iii) the re-analysis of clinical trial data to gain novel insights; and iv) randomized trials and analysis of household surveys in low- and middle-income countries to improve population health (with a focus on chronic conditions, particularly cardiovascular disease risk factors).

Our team’s research spans the fields of dermatology, technology and public health. One of our main projects is centered on developing innovative skin cancer prevention interventions using social media. Another project area is the use of shared decision-making, mobile app technology for monitoring and optimal care of low risk skin cancers. We collaborate closely with colleagues in bioinformatics and computer science on use of visual Artificial intelligence methods to skin image monitoring. Additionally, we advocate for diversity and gender equity in medicine by writing both original data articles and perspective pieces on these topics. We collaborate with epidemiologists, clinicians, biostatisticians, basic, computer and social scientists at Stanford University as well as other institutions.

Michelle Odden, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health (E&PH) in the Stanford School of Medicine and a Research Scientist in the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC) in the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Her research aims to improve our understanding of the optimal preventive strategies for chronic disease in older adults, particularly those who have been underrepresented in research including the very old, frail, and racial/ethnic minorities. Her work has focused on prevention of cardiovascular and kidney outcomes, as well as preservation of physical and cognitive function in older adults. Additionally, she has new projects in mitochondrial genetics and the proteomic signature of aging.  Dr. Odden’s methodologic focus in in causal inference and methods to reduce biases in observational studies. She also serves as the Chair of the E&PH Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. 

Dr. Parsonnet is an Infectious Diseases epidemiologist and clinician.  The Parsonnet lab works to understand how infectious agents influence the development of chronic diseases.  During the COVID crisis, the lab has also been actively involved in a wide range of investigations of this disease ranging from large seroepidemiologic studies to novel treatment trials to collaborative studies on COVID immunology.  Studies that could potentially take a fellow include:

• Large seroepidemiologic, longitudinal studies of COVID in the counties throughout California both before and after the initiation of vaccines.   We have collected data sets that allow us to understand risk factors for breakthrough infections,  how vaccination and other interventions change behavior,  and the role of natural infection in building immunity.
• Studies on COVID infection, immunity and vaccination in patients receiving dialysis
• A clinical trial of camostat, a TMPPRS2 blocker, that prevents SARS-CoV2 from entering cells.
• Studies that define the normal human body temperature in children and adults
• Research on how skin care in babies varies across populations and how this influences skin integrity and development of allergic diseases later in life (with Kari Nadeau).
• Studies on the development of the pediatric virome, microbiome and immunome in the first three years of life.

The ultimate goal of my research is to decrease health inequities among racial/ethnic minority populations, particularly Latinxs and immigrant communities, through transdisciplinary and community-engaged scholarship. Our research centers on health equity promotion and chronic disease prevention. This work employs principles of community engagement and Community Based Participatory Research and partners with multi-sectoral stakeholders to design and implement research that meets the needs of local communities. Dr. Rodriguez Espinosa has several ongoing studies and partnerships addressing issues related to cancer, chronic conditions, COVID-19, and models that can strenghten social services systems. Many of her studies partner with promotoras or Community Health Workers. She is the Associate Director of Research for the Stanford Medicine Office of Community Engagment and current chair of the Society of Behavioral Medicine Health Equity Special Insterest Group. 

The Stanford BAD Lab is dedicated to centering the lives of Black academics and to the study of liberatory linguistics. We are invested in research that provides insight on factors that affect the academic and professional retention and the quality of life of Black people throughout the teaching and learning lifespan. Our current research projects focus on increasing racial diversity in the STEM fields, including the linguistic sciences; supporting teachers in building their knowledge of linguistic variation and its role in student outcomes across subject areas; and survivorship care of Black cancer patients.

My research focuses on the influence of the external environment on entrepreneurship. Specifically, I have sought to be a leader in investigating the types of environments that encourage the founding of high growth, technology-based firms. Although I build on previous work that focuses on individual characteristics, network ties, and strategy, my major contribution is to demonstrate that institutions matter. I have broken new ground in showing that effective institutional change influences who starts firms, not just how many firms are started. I have repeatedly studied entrepreneurship in a single country (China, Chile, Japan, and the U.S.) before and after a major institutional change. My work is divided into three streams: (1) formal institutions (policies and regulations), (2) university and industry environments, and (3) informal institutions (social movements).
STREAM 1: My research in this stream advances theory by introducing novel mechanisms (e.g. barriers to growth and failure, institutional inconsistency), introducing new concepts (e.g. skill adequacy and context relevance) and in theorizing that institutional changes that lower barriers to growth and to failure alter who becomes an entrepreneur, the type of firms, and performance.
STREAM 2: My work in this stream changes the way we think about team composition as well as what characteristics lead to venture performance by linking their impacts to industry environments.
STREAM 3: In this stream, I explored how social movement organizations can change firms.
My research changes the way we think about how the environment – formal institutions, informal institutions, and industry contexts – influences entrepreneurship. I am a leader in situating ventures within environments and showing that interactions between environments and entrepreneurs matter. I am among the first to argue and show that policies that foster high-growth entrepreneurship are different than those that spawn small businesses. If policy leaders wish to foster technology-based start-ups, then we must consider how institutions operate. My research shows that institutional changes can significantly influence the types of firms that are created, who creates them, and how they perform. My research challenges widely accepted ideas about entrepreneurship by highlighting taken-for-granted notions that are incomplete or misleading. My studies call into question the assumption that institutions that make it easier to start firms are unambiguously beneficial, and that experienced, diverse founding teams are always superior. My theoretical contributions include introducing such concepts as institutional barriers to growth, skill adequacy and context relevance. I lead the way in broadening our conception of entrepreneurship beyond the developed North American economies. I have contributed methodologically by (A) showing how to measure talent, (B) collecting data internationally, (C) using randomized field experiments, and (D) analyzing multi-industry databases with state-of-the-art statistics (instrumental variables, differences-in-differences). I have been a pioneer in overcoming the challenges of inferring causality, by finding changes that altered the landscape for entrepreneurship, along with collecting novel data in international settings. In future work, I plan to do more studies incorporating software development for data collection and digital platforms for randomized experiments focusing on issues related to strategic change and entrepreneurship training. 

Heilshorn's interests include biomaterials in regenerative medicine, engineered proteins with novel assembly properties, microfluidics and photolithography of proteins, and synthesis of materials to influence stem cell differentiation. Current projects include tissue engineering for spinal cord and blood vessel regeneration, designing injectable materials for use in stem cell therapies, and the design of biomaterials for culture of patient-derived biopsies and organoids. Postdoctoral candidates with expertise (or an interest in learning) preclinical animal models of injury and disease are particularly encouraged.

Department URL:
https://mse.stanford.edu

The Pop Lab is a research group led by Prof. Eric Pop in Electrical Engineering (EE) and Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) at Stanford University. We are located in the Paul Allen Center for Integrated Systems (CIS), working in the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF) and the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF). We are affiliated with the Stanford SystemX Alliance and the Non-Volatile Memory Technology Research Initiative (NMTRI).

Our research is at the intersection of nanoelectronics and nanoscale energy conversion, exploring topics such as:

• Energy-efficient transistors, data storage (memory), and thermoelectrics
• 2D materials (graphene, h-BN, MoS2, WSe2,...) and phase-change materials (GST, VO2)
• Fundamental physical limits of current and heat flow, e.g. ballistic electrons and phonons
• Applications of nanoscale energy transport, conversion and harvesting

Our work includes nanofabrication, characterization, and multiscale simulations. On-campus collaborations include Materials Science, Physics, Chemical and Mechanical Engineering, and off-campus they range from UIUC, UC Davis, Georgia Tech, UT Dallas, Univ. of Tokyo and Singapore (NUS), to TU Wien, Univ. Bologna and Poli Milano.

To learn more about us, please visit http://poplab.stanford.edu

Prof. Wang directs the Center for Magnetic Nanotechnology and is a leading expert in biosensors, information storage and spintronics. His research and inventions span across a variety of areas including magnetic biochips, in vitro diagnostics, cancer biomarkers, magnetic nanoparticles, magnetic sensors, magnetoresistive random access memory, and magnetic integrated inductors. 

My group is interested in elucidating the mechanics of cell-matrix interactions in soft tissues. We seek to understand how the mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix regulate processes such as breast cancer progression, stem cell differentiation, and cell division. Further, we aim to determine the biophysics of cell migration and division in confining 3D microenvironments. Our approach involves the use of engineered biomaterials for 3D cell culture and instrumentation to measure forces at the microscale relevant to cells.

Mechanics and Manufacturing. Development of novel materials for additive manufacturing such as nanocomposite two photon lithography resins, and metal-ceramic magnetic composites. Mechanics of energy materials (battery materials, materials for the hydrogen economy). Structural materials such as lightweight alloys and metallic glasses. 

Our research is concerned with the computational modeling and the experimental investigation of fluids in complex environments, including chemical reactions, phase transition, and heterogeneous flow environment. We addressing fundamental scientific questions, problems pertaining to energy-conversion and propulsion, as well as environmental issues related to wildfire predictions, carbon-capture and sequestration, and water desalination. We are developing advanced numerical algorithms, detailed physical models, and physics-informed and data-driven methods. Experimentally, our research employs X-ray absorption and scattering techniques  that involve X-ray Computed Tomography at laboratory and synchrotron sources, X-ray spectroscopy, and ultrafast X-ray techniques at the Linac Coherent Light Source to observe processes at sub-picosecond timescales.

Department URL:
https://me.stanford.edu

The Cardiovascular Biomechanics Computation Lab  develops fundamental computational methods for the study of cardiovascular disease progression, surgical methods, treatment planning and medical devices.  We focus on patient-specific modeling in pediatric and congenital heart disease, as well as adult cardiovascular disease.  Our lab bridges engineering and medicine through the departments of Pediatrics, Bioengineering, and the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering. We develop the SimVascular open source project.

Our lab focuses on experimental, data-driven and theoretical work in turbulent and unsteady flows, as they impact problems in aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, climate and energy. We have particular interests in developing hybrid approaches that exploit power of data, real-time sensing and actuation, modeling and machine learning to create innovative flow states and engineering capabilities.

From finger prick tests for blood glucose monitoring to industrial-scale drug screening in pharmaceutical companies, the ability to extract information from scarce volumes of samples quickly and cheaply is key to effective disease management and drug discovery. To this end, microfluidics offers major advantages over conventional liquid handling due to drastic reduction in reagent volume and the precise control of single cells, microtissues, and their microenvironments. The micro-nano-bio lab under the direction of Dr. Sindy Tang aims to develop innovative micro and nanoscale devices that harness mass transport phenomena to enable precise manipulation, measurement, and recapitulation of biological systems, in order to understand the "rules of life" and accelerate precision medicine and material design for a future with better health and environmental sustainability. Our approach involves building new tools to probe biological systems (from single cells to microtissues), and engineering smart materials, synthetic cells & tissues with properties that mimic some of the amazing properties biological systems have. Current research projects include:

• Understanding and accelerating the diagnosis of allergic diseases
• Biomechanics of single cell wound resilience
• Tools for advancing cancer research
• Bottom-up construction of biological systems

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Cell biology & microfluidics, UCSF & Stanford

A joint postdoc position between the labs of Wallace Marshall (UCSF) and Sindy Tang (Stanford) is immediately available in the area of single-cell wound healing. The broad question we aim to answer is how the single-celled ciliate Stentor can heal drastic wounds. We are looking for a candidate with a background in cell biology or related fields. This position will allow ample opportunities to learn new techniques including microfluidics for single-cell manipulation and mathematical modeling.

Application
For questions or applications (see below), please feel free to reach out to Prof. Wallace Marshall (wallace.ucsf@gmail.com) or Prof. Sindy Tang (sindy@stanford.edu). To apply, please include a CV (with a publication list) and some detail about your background and interest in the project.

Project description:
Biomechanical mechanisms conferring wound resilience in single-celled organisms
Stentor coeruleus is a large, single-celled ciliate that has remarkable wound healing and regenerative capacity (see Slabodnick et al., Current Bio, 2014 https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.10...). It is found in environments that can be subject to high mechanical stresses due to natural flows or predation. The overall goal of this project is to investigate how this organism employs both mechanical and biochemical mechanisms upstream of wounding for wound prevention, as well as downstream of wounding for robust healing from wounds (https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-021-00970-0).

We have sequenced the Stentor genome, and developed tools for molecular manipulation of Stentor gene expression to pave the way to a molecular understanding of Stentor wound response.   This project involves conceptualization of a novel chemical screen to test the role of the cytoskeleton in conferring wound resistance to the cell, and the role of large-scale mechanical force generation in complementing biochemical healing modes to close wounds of increasing severity.

Some questions we ask are: how does Stentor cell mechanics give rise to wound resistance? How do cells respond to shear or other types of stresses? What molecular pathways are important in Stentor wound healing, and are they the same as in other eukaryotes?
The project combines cell biology, microfluidics for precise wounding (see Blauch et al., PNAS 2017 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1705059114), and mechanobiology modeling.

Required Qualifications:
Desired skills for this project include:
• Cell biology
• Chemical screen
• RNAi and genetic transformation
• Past experience with Stentor, other ciliates, or manipulation (e.g., microinjection) of large cells or embryos such as Drosophila
• Mathematical modelling of cellular processes
Candidates proficient in certain skills outlined above will have opportunities to receive training in complementary skill sets.

Required Application Materials:
Your CV with a publication list, and some detail about your background and interest in the project.

Our lab is interested in the host pathways that determine the susceptibility of humans to viral disease. Viruses constantly evolve to exploit host machineries for their benefit whilst disarming host restriction mechanisms. Discovery of host proteins critical for viral infection illuminates basic aspects of cellular biology, reveals intricate virus host relationships, and leads to potential targets for antiviral therapeutics.

Malaria is one of the leading causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in the world. The etiologic agent of severe malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, exclusively infects red blood cells during the blood stage of its life cycle, when all of the symptoms of malaria occur. P. falciparum is an obligate intracellular parasite, suggesting that it critically depends on host factors for its biology and pathogenesis. This concept is also supported by population genetic studies, which indicate that humans have evolved certain red cell traits, such as hemoglobinopathies, to protect against malaria. The importance of these host-pathogen interactions raises the possibility that critical red cell factors could serve as targets for new, host-directed therapeutics for malaria. However, our understanding of host determinants for malaria is limited because red cells are enucleated and lack DNA, hindering genetic manipulation. In the Egan laboratory we have surmounted this hurdle by adapting advances from stem cell biology to the study of malaria host factors. Specifically, we have developed approaches to differentiate primary human CD34+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells down the erythroid lineage to enucleated red blood cells that can be infected by P. falciparum. This thus gives us access to the nucleated progenitor cells for genetic modification using RNAi and CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. We are using these methods to develop forward genetic screens to identify novel host factors for malaria, as well as to perform mechanistic studies to understand the specific functions of critical host factors during the developmental cycle of malaria parasites. In addition, the lab has projects focused on understanding human adaptation to malaria using clinical samples. Our long term goal is to explore the possibility of host-directed therapeutics for malaria.

With a creative, collaborative, biophysical mindset, we aim to understand the ability of parasites to interface with their host-cell to a point at which we can exploit the mechanisms not only for finding cures against the disease the parasites cause but also to make parasite mechanisms a tool that we can use to engineer the host’s cells. By developing approaches that allow a quantitative understanding and manipulation of molecular transport our research transforms parasites from agents of disease to tools for health.

Specifically, we are studying how the malaria parasite takes control over red blood cells. By learning the biophysical principles of transport in between the host and the parasite we can design ways to kill the parasite or exploit it to reengineer red blood cells. The transport we study is broadly encompassing everything from ions to lipids and proteins. We use variations of quantitative microscopy and electrophysiology to gain insight into the unique strategies the parasite evolved to survive.