PRISM Mentors

Roncarolo laboratory is exploring the basic biology and translational applications of human type 1 regulatory cells (Tr1). We are using engineered Tr1, ex vivo Tr1, and alloantigen-specific Tr1 to uncover the molecular frameworks that govern Tr1 identity, differentiation and function. We are also translating Tr1 into the clinic. First, Tr1 can be used as a supportive cell therapy to enhance stem cell engraftment and immune reconstitution after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Alloantigen-specific Tr1, designed to prevent graft-vs-host disease (GvHD) after allogeneic HSCT, are already being tested in a phase I/II clinical trial (NCT03198234). Second, we are investigating the mechanisms of action and clinical potential of the engineered Tr1 called CD4(IL-10) or LV-10, generated by lentiviral transduction of CD4 T cells with IL10 gene. Besides their immunosuppressive and anti-GvHD properties, LV-10 lyse primary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells and delay myeloid leukemia progression in vivo. We are exploring LV-10 as a novel cell immunotherapy for AML. Finally, we are interested in curing inborn errors of immunity by stem cell transplantation or autologous stem cell gene correction. We are testing a gene editing strategy to correct pathogenic mutations in IL10 and IL10 receptor genes, which cause severe and debilitating VEO-IBD (very early onset inflammatory bowel disease) in infants and young children.

My lab works towards developing novel therapeutics for Diabetes and Endocrine Cell Tumors. To achieve this goal, we develop (1) new animal disease models  to better understand disease pathogenesis (biologists), (2) innovative screening/discovery  platforms to identify potential therapeutic targets and lead compounds (biologists/biochemists) and  (3) synthesize new chemical entities with desired activities for therapeutic application (medicinal chemists). Hence, typical projects in the lab are interdisciplinary and collaborative where the work of biologists is supported by the power of synthetic chemistry . A major current theme in the lab is addressing the challenge   of cell-targeted drug delivery, i.e. how can we develop a medicine that only acts on the cell type of interest and apply this to (a) a regenerative therapy for diabetes and (b) the treatment of cancer.   If you're excited about disease modeling and/or drug discovery (in diabetes and cancer) my lab might be a good match for you.

Diabetes is a disorder of glucose homeostasis that causes excess hospitalization, morbidity and early mortality among the more than 34.2 million disease-affected Americans. Consequently, developing pharmacologic methods to preserve β-cell function and/or stimulate β-cell mass expansion is of intense interest. Presently, the creation of improved diabetes medications is stymied by a dearth of safe therapeutic targets. In fact, on-target but off-tissue drug effects are slowing progress across multiple diabetes therapeutic domains including β-cell regeneration, β-cell preservation, and immune-protection. In principle, stimulating the regeneration of insulin-producing β-cells could be used to restore or enhance endogenous insulin production capacity. Recently, we developed several new highly potent chemical inducers of human β-cell proliferation. However, the non-selective growth-promoting activity of these molecules prevents further clinical development. Consequently, a “modular” (readily transferable) system for β-cell-targeted drug delivery is needed to realize the next generation of diabetes therapeutics. To address this challenge, we are developing a β-cell-targeted drug delivery module based upon the uniquely high zinc content of β-cells. In this system, a zinc-chelating moiety is covalently integrated into a replication-promoting (cargo) compound to generate a bi-functional compound (βRepZnC) that selectively enhances β-cell drug accumulation and replication-promoting activity (PMID: 30527998).

We are seeking a motivated post-doctoral scholar to join our collaborative research team. This scientist will lead and engage  in developing novel βRepZnCs and uncover the biology of β-cell failure. They will define the chemical “rules” that govern zinc-dependent β-cell drug targeting,  examine the in vivo β-cell selectivity (accumulation and replication-promoting activity) of  newly developed βRepZnCs (work is supported by a synthtic chemist) and use CRISPR technology to genetically dissect the pathways that control β-cell zinc and zinc-binding drug accumulation. These studies will a break-through technology for β-cell-targeted drug delivery and provide fundamental (targetable) insights into β-cell biology. This work has the potential to transform our therapeutic approach to diabetes and provide critical insights into β-cell biology.

The Clarke Lab uses genomics, epidemiology, and data science to understand cardiovascular disease risk. Key areas of focus include:

1. Equitable development and applications of polygenic risk scores

2. Novel phenotyping using electronic health records, wearables, and/or medical imaging

3.  Artificial intelligence applications to medical imaging

4. Studying nataionl biobanks (Million Veteran Program, UK Biobank, All of Us)

The overall theme of our research has been the genetic basis of cardiovascular disease across the continuum from Discovery to the development of Model Systems to the Translation of these findings to the clinic and most recently to the Public Health aspect of genetics. Currently our Discovery and basic translational efforts center on understanding the genetic basis of insulin resistance using genome wide association studies coupled advanced genetic analyses such as colocalization with exploration using in vitro and in vivo model systems including induced pluripotent stem cells and and gene editing screens. 

Stanford Solutions Science Lab.

The Stanford Solutions Science Lab designs solutions to improve health and well-being of children, families, and the planet.  Dr. Robinson originated the solution-oriented research paradigm. He is known for his pioneering obesity prevention and treatment research, including the concept of stealth interventions. His research applies social cognitive models of behavior change to behavioral, social, environmental and policy interventions for children and families in real world settings, making the results relevant for informing clinical and public health practice and policy. His research is largely experimental, conducting rigorous school-, family- and community-based randomized controlled trials. He studies obesity and disordered eating, nutrition, physical activity/inactivity and sedentary behavior, the effects of television and other screen time, adolescent smoking, aggressive behavior, consumerism, and behaviors to promote environmental sustainability. Rich longitudinal datasets of physical, physiological, psychological, behavioral, social, behavioral, and multi-omics measures are available from our many community-based obesity prevention and treatment trials in low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations of children and adolescents and their parents.

Stanford Screenomics Lab - Human Screenome Project.

People increasingly live their lives through smartphones. Our Stanford Screenomics app captures everything that people see and do on their smartphone screens – a record of digital life – by taking a screenshot every 5 seconds. The resulting sequence of screenshots, make up an individual’s screenome, an unique and dynamic sequence of exposures, thoughts, feelings, and actions. To date, we have collected more than 350 million screenshots from 6-12 months of phone use from national samples of about 500 hundred adults and adolescents and their parents. Opportunities available to study the screenome to understand digital media use and its impacts on health and behavior,  develop novel diagnostics and prognostics from the screenome, and deliver precision interventions to improve health and well being. An opportunity to help build this paradigm-disrupting new science.

Dr. Carmichael is a perinatal and nutritional epidemiologist and Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on finding ways to improve maternal and infant health. Exposure themes include nutrition, social context, care, environmental contaminants and genetics. Outcome themes include severe maternal morbidity, stillbirth, birth defects, and preterm delivery. She is particularly interested in understanding the intersectionality of these varied types of exposures and outcomes and how they interact to impact health and health disparities, for the mother-baby dyad, in domestic as well as global health settings. She currently (mid 2020) has an opening in her lab for a post-doc focused on maternal health.

Her lab seeks to understand the unique biological mechanisms of human placentation. While the placenta itself is one of the key characteristics for defining mammals, the human placenta is different from most available animal models: it is one of the most invasive placentas, and results in the formation of an organ comprised of cells from both the fetus and the mother. In addition to this fascinating chimerism, fetal cells are deeply involved in the remodeling of the maternal vasculature in order to redirect large volumes of maternal blood to the placenta to support the developing fetus. As such, the investigation of this human organ covers a large array of biological processes, and deals not only with understanding its endocrine function, but the physiologic process of immune tolerance, vascular remodeling, and cellular invasion.

As a physician scientist, Dr. Winn’s ultimate goal is to see this knowledge translate to improved clinical care resulting in healthier mothers and babies. Her lab uses a combination of molecular, cellular, tissue and translational studies in their research.

The Magic Lab has three subgroups based on three branches of science: (a) physics; (b) chemistry; (c) mathematics.  The physics-based subgroup focuses on a wide spectrum of issues ranging from: (i) novel adaptations of aberration-corrected modern electron microscopy and spectroscopy (including PAMELA, vibrational spectroscopy and cryogenic-EM); (ii) investigations of novel materials and devices at the nanoscale.  The chemistry-based subgroup is exploring new and scalable solutions to: (i) atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane removal as well as mitigating methane emissions; (ii) new ways to dehumidify ambient air with ultra-low energy intensity; (iii) novel approaches to remove atmospheric particulate (e.g., PM2.5) pollution.  The math-based subgroup focuses on the use of deep learning and generative AI to address critical problems for the electric grid and broad energy systems.

Professor Gaffney leads a research team focused on femtosecond resolution measurements of chemical dynamics in complex condensed phase systems. This research takes advantage of recent advances in ultrafast x-ray lasers, like the LCLS at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, to directly observe chemical reactions on the natural time and length scales of the chemical bond – femtoseconds and Ångströms. This research focuses on the discovery of design principles for controlling the non-equilibrium dynamics of electronic excited states and using these principles to spark new approaches to light-driven catalysis in chemical synthesis.

This research builds on Professor Gaffney’s extensive experience with ultrafast optical laser science and technology. This work began with time- and angle- resolved two photon photoemission studies of electron solvation and localization at interfaces as a graduate student working with Professor Charles Harris at the University of California at Berkeley and extended to multidimensional vibrational spectroscopy studies of hydrogen bonding and ion solvation dynamics in solution during postdoctoral studies with Professor Michael Fayer at Stanford and as an Assistant Professor. The transition to ultrafast x-ray science began in 2004 at SLAC, where he helped establish the first chemical dynamics research program at SLAC.

The mission of the Corsello lab is to develop new therapeutic strategies for cancer, with an emphasis on unmet needs in solid tumor oncology. We operate at the intersection of chemical biology and functional genomics to discover novel anti-cancer mechanisms of small molecules. Our findings have resulted in multiple drug development projects.

The overarching research goal of the Diehn lab is to develop and translate novel diagnostic assays and therapies to improve personalized treatment of cancer patients. We have a major focus on the development and application of liquid biopsy technologies for human cancers, with a particular emphasis on lung cancers and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). We also investigate mechanisms of treatment resistance to radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted agents. Most of our research projects start by identifying an unmet need in the clinical management of cancer patients that we then try to solve via development or application of novel technologies. We use genomics, bioinformatics, stem cell biology, genome editing, mouse genetics, and preclinical cancer models in our work. Discoveries from our group are currently being tested in multiple clinical trials at Stanford and elsewhere in order to translate them into the clinic.

Our research focus is in computational systems biology, primarily in cancer and more recently in neurodegenerative diseases.  We develop and apply methods to understand biological processes underlying disease, using high-throughput genomic and proteomic datasets and integrating them with phenotypes and clinical outcomes. A key interest is dissecting how the cellular composition and organization of tissues affects their behaviour in disease; and how these things might be targeted for therapy or diagnostic purposes. We collaborate with many wet lab and clinical groups at Stanford, including in the areas of cancer, immunology, and neuroscience.

The Majeti lab focuses on the molecular/genomic characterization and therapeutic targeting of leukemia stem cells in human hematologic malignancies, particularly acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In parallel, the lab also investigates normal human hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem cells. Our lab uses experimental hematology methods, stem cell assays, genome editing, and bioinformatics to define and investigate drivers of leukemia stem cell behavior. As part of these studies, we have led the development and application of robust xenotransplantation assays for both normal and malignant human hematopoietic cells. A major focus of the lab is the investigation of pre-leukemic hematopoietic stem cells in human AML.

Stanford Solutions Science Lab.

The Stanford Solutions Science Lab designs solutions to improve health and well-being of children, families, and the planet.  Dr. Robinson originated the solution-oriented research paradigm. He is known for his pioneering obesity prevention and treatment research, including the concept of stealth interventions. His research applies social cognitive models of behavior change to behavioral, social, environmental and policy interventions for children and families in real world settings, making the results relevant for informing clinical and public health practice and policy. His research is largely experimental, conducting rigorous school-, family- and community-based randomized controlled trials. He studies obesity and disordered eating, nutrition, physical activity/inactivity and sedentary behavior, the effects of television and other screen time, adolescent smoking, aggressive behavior, consumerism, and behaviors to promote environmental sustainability. Rich longitudinal datasets of physical, physiological, psychological, behavioral, social, behavioral, and multi-omics measures are available from our many community-based obesity prevention and treatment trials in low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations of children and adolescents and their parents.

Stanford Screenomics Lab - Human Screenome Project.

People increasingly live their lives through smartphones. Our Stanford Screenomics app captures everything that people see and do on their smartphone screens – a record of digital life – by taking a screenshot every 5 seconds. The resulting sequence of screenshots, make up an individual’s screenome, an unique and dynamic sequence of exposures, thoughts, feelings, and actions. To date, we have collected more than 350 million screenshots from 6-12 months of phone use from national samples of about 500 hundred adults and adolescents and their parents. Opportunities available to study the screenome to understand digital media use and its impacts on health and behavior,  develop novel diagnostics and prognostics from the screenome, and deliver precision interventions to improve health and well being. An opportunity to help build this paradigm-disrupting new science.

X-ray laser physics; matter at extreme conditions and fusion research

Dr. Sarangi is a senior scientist at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory with 19 years of experience in the application of a combination of hard and soft x-ray spectroscopic techniques to a range of systems, from complex biological/biomimetic catalysts to related homogenous catalyst systems. One of her main research foci is understanding the mechanism of first row transition metal metalloenzyme active sites involved in redox catalysis. She drives the technological development on several x-ray spectroscopy facilities and plays a critical role in training and dissemination of synchrotron-based techniques. She is also involved in strategic planning to enhance access of various research user communities to SSRL facilities.

The Wolf Research Group investigates ultrafast photochemical dynamics in isolated molecules. We are part of the Stanford PULSE Institute, a Stanford independent laboratory and a research center at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Our offices and lab space are on the SLAC campus. For our research, we use SLAC’s large-scale research facilities, such as the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world’s first hard X-ray free electron laser, and the megaelectronvolt ultrafast electron diffraction (MeV-UED) facility within LCLS.

Dr. Sarangi is a senior scientist at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory with 19 years of experience in the application of a combination of hard and soft x-ray spectroscopic techniques to a range of systems, from complex biological/biomimetic catalysts to related homogenous catalyst systems. One of her main research foci is understanding the mechanism of first row transition metal metalloenzyme active sites involved in redox catalysis. She drives the technological development on several x-ray spectroscopy facilities and plays a critical role in training and dissemination of synchrotron-based techniques. She is also involved in strategic planning to enhance access of various research user communities to SSRL facilities.

I am a clinical pathologist and assistant professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pathology, and Genetics (by courtesy) at Stanford. I completed my MD-PhD training at Yale University and my residency training and a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University. My experiences as a clinical pathologist and genome scientist have made me passionate about applying cutting-edge technologies to primary patient specimens in order to characterize disease pathologies at the molecular level. The core focus of my lab is to study the mechanisms by which genetic variants influence the risk of disease through effects on intermediate molecular phenotypes.

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).

The research at Stanford's Health Policy Data Science Lab is centered on developing and integrating innovative statistical machine learning approaches to improve human health and health equity. This includes ethical algorithms in health care, risk adjustment, comparative effectiveness research, and health program evaluation. 

The STAAR Lab is a dynamic new neuroscience lab in Stanford’s Psychiatry Department, led by Neir Eshel, MD, PhD. We are looking to hire curious and ambitious postdocs to join our team. Lab projects focus on the neural circuitry of aggressive and compulsive behaviors, using optogenetics, in vivo imaging, electrophysiology, and sophisticated machine learning/artificial intelligence analyses of animal behavior. There are ample opportunities for career development and clinical exposure based on candidate interest. Compensation and benefits are highly competitive. The ideal postdoctoral candidate has an MD and/or PhD in neuroscience or related field and extensive experience with rodent neuroscience. Excellent analytical skills, e.g., Python & Matlab, are strongly preferred. An expert data analyst may be considered even without animal experience. We are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion.

Giardino Lab: Circuits & Systems Neuroscience

Our research group aims to decipher the neural mechanisms underlying the interactions between psychiatric conditions of addiction, stress, and sleep disturbances. The Giardino Lab uses in vivo physiological tools for neural recording and neuromodulation in genetic mouse models to dissect the neuropeptide basis of extended amygdala circuit function in motivated behaviors with molecular and synaptic resolution. The lab, located in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences' Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, is currently accepting applicants for postdoctoral researchers.

Research Topics

• Stress & Reward
• Drug Addiction
• Sex Differences
• Wakefulness/Arousal
• Neuropeptide Release & Signaling
• Feeding & Metabolism

 Research Approaches

• Neuromodulation (optogenetics, chemogenetics)
• Neurophysiological recordings (fiber photometry, calcium imaging, EEG/EMG)
• Neurogenetics (CRISPR/Cas9 editing, Cre/loxP recombination, viral gene transfer, mouse genetics) 
• Neuroanatomy (circuit tracing, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, confocal & light sheet microscopy)
• Neuropharmacology (alcohol & drug self-administration, receptor mechanisms)
• Computation (neural circuit modeling, machine learning analysis of behavioral & physiological datasets)
• Behavior and Evolution (rodent model organisms, cross-species comparisons)
• Translation (interdisciplinary and clinical collaborations, treatment development)

Required Qualifications:
Ph.D. in neuroscience/ psychology/ biology/ related field (or other doctoral degree with relevant research experience)
Excellent publication record (including first-author papers)
Enthusiasm for making new discoveries on the neural basis of behavior (stress, addiction, sleep/wake arousal states)
Computational expertise / programming skills (strongly encouraged but not required)
Commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at Stanford (non-negotiable)

Required Application Materials:
Curriculum Vitae
Cover letter describing your interest in the position (1-2 brief paragraphs)
Contact info for 2+ references (name & email address)

Contact: willgiar at stanford dot edu

The research interests of the molecular imaging instrumentation lab are to create novel instrumentation and software algorithms for in vivo imaging of molecular signatures of disease in humans and small laboratory animals. These new cameras efficiently image radiation emissions in the form of positrons, annihilation photons, gamma rays, and/or light emitted from molecular contrast agents that were introduced into the body and distributed in the subject tissues. These contrast agents are designed to target molecular pathways of disease biology and enable imaging of these biological signatures in tissues residing deep within the body using measurements made from outside the body.

The goals of the instrumentation projects are to advance the sensitivity and spatial, spectral, and/or temporal resolutions, and to create new camera geometries for special biomedical applications. The computational modeling and algorithm goals are to understand the physical system comprising the subject tissues, radiation transport, and imaging system, and to provide the best available image quality and quantitative accuracy.

The work involves designing and building instrumentation, including arrays of position sensitive sensors, readout electronics, and data acquisition electronics, signal processing research, including creation of computer models, and image reconstruction, image processing, and data/image analysis algorithms, and incorporating these innovations into practical imaging devices.

The ultimate goal is to introduce these new imaging tools into studies of molecular mechanisms and treatments of disease within living subjects.

My research group is currently focused on understanding brain function and inter-brain synchrony during naturalistic social interaction. We use ultra-portable near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to address specific scientific questions with an emphasis on multi-modal assessment (e.g., behavioral, physiological, environmental setting, and eye-tracking in addition to functional NIRS). This overall scientific apprach is called "interaction neuroscience:.

Mitochondria move and undergo fission and fusion in all eukaryotic cells. The accurate allocation of mitochondria in neurons is particularly critical due to the significance of mitochondria for ATP supply, Ca++ homeostasis and apoptosis and the importance of these functions to the distal extremities of neurons. In addition, defective mitochondria, which can be highly deleterious to a cell because of their output of reactive oxygen species, need to be repaired by fusing with healthy mitochondria or cleared from the cell. Thus mitochondrial cell biology poses critical questions for all cells, but especially for neurons: how the cell sets up an adequate distribution of the organelle; how it sustains mitochondria in the periphery; and how mitochondria are removed after damage. The goal of our research is to understand the regulatory mechanisms controlling mitochondrial dynamics and function and the mechanisms by which even subtle perturbations of these processes may contribute to neurodegenerative disorders.