Of Note
July-December 2020
Rebecca Aslakson, MD, PhD
Aslakson, associate professor of primary care and population health and of anesthesiology, was awarded the Outstanding Sponsor Award from the Stanford Faculty Women’s Forum. The honor recognizes faculty members who have fostered a constructive and inclusive culture for women on the university’s faculty.
Kinsley Belle, PhD
Belle, a postdoctoral scholar in ophthalmology and at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, received an award from the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. The $50,000-per-year grant will support his work in understanding the role heteroplasmy — the percentage of mutant mitochondrial DNA — plays in mitochondrial disease. He will also screen for conditions and compounds that could alleviate heteroplasmy and cellular dysfunction.
Matthew Edwards, MD
Edwards, chief resident in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was named editor in chief of The American Journal of Psychiatry’s Residents’ Journal. Edwards’ research interests are medical history, ethics and public policy.
Jeffrey Glenn, MD, PhD
Glenn, professor of gastroenterology and of microbiology and immunology, received a Harrington Discovery Institute Scholar Award for Coronavirus. Glenn, whose research focus is molecular virology, received a $150,000 grant, as well as drug development support, for his work on a single-dose antiviral therapeutic for COVID-19.
Ronald Levy, MD
Levy, the Robert K. and Helen K. Summy Professor of oncology, received a Blood Cancer Discovery Grant from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The $750,000 award, to be issued over three years, will allow him to investigate a CAR T-cell immunotherapy in which the cells are generated in the patient.
Ravi Majeti, MD, PhD
Majeti, professor of hematology, received a Blood Cancer Discovery Grant from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The award, $750,000 over three years, will support him in investigating the progression of preleukemic cells into acute myeloid leukemia, as well as in testing potential therapies and studying the role of the microenvironment in disease progression.
Melissa Mavers, MD, PhD
Mavers, instructor in pediatrics, received a St. Baldrick’s Scholar grant of $100,000 and a National Institutes of Health grant of $832,680. The awards will enable her to research immunosuppressive human invariant natural killer T cells in preventing graft-versus-host disease.
Juno Obedin-Maliver, MD, and Mitch Lunn, MD
Obedin-Maliver, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and Lunn, assistant professor of nephrology, received an award from the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program. The $1.2 million grant will cover the cost of engaging sexual and gender minority participants in the program, educating researchers about the program’s data for health disparities research, and improving the program’s capacity to welcome and train participants.
David Relman, MD
Relman, the Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor and professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology, received the Walsh McDermott Medal from the National Academy of Medicine. The medal is given to members of the academy who have provided distinguished service throughout their careers. Relman has served on 15 committees or forums within the academy since 2002. He working with members of the academy to investigate mystery illnesses affecting State Department employees overseas, as well as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Stefanie Sebok-Syer, MD
Sebok-Syer, instructor in emergency medicine, and Lorelie Lingard, PhD, a professor at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University, received a Stemmier Fund grant from the National Board of Medical Examiners. The $149,999 grant will allow them to assess the performance of caregivers in collaborative medical situations.
Lucy Shapiro, PhD
Shapiro, the Virginia and D. K. Ludwig professor of developmental biology, received an honorary doctorate from Rockefeller University. Her research focuses on defining the mechanisms of generating the three-dimensional organization of a cell from a one-dimensional genetic code.
Eila Skinner, MD
Skinner, chair of urology and the Thomas A. Stamey Research Professor in Urology, received the Huggins Medal from the Society of Urologic Oncology. The honor is given for major contributions to the treatment of patients with genitourinary neoplasms. Skinner’s primary focus is the research and treatment of bladder cancer.
Bo Wang, PhD
Wang, assistant professor of bioengineering, was included in Science News’ 10 Scientists to Watch for 2020. His research focuses on tissue regeneration, adaptation and evolution. The Science News list includes scientists under 40 who have made significant contributions in their fields.
Sophia Wang, MD
Wang, instructor in ophthalmology, received a career development award from Research to Prevent Blindness. The $350,000 grant supports the development algorithms to predict the progression of a patient’s glaucoma and the likelihood of surgery success.
June 2020
Agnieszka Czechowicz, MD, PhD
Czechowicz, assistant professor of pediatrics, received a young investigator award from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. The $150,000 grant will cover research into stem cell transplantation as a cure for pediatric acute myeloid leukemia.
Paul Heidenreich, MD
Heidenreich, professor of cardiovascular medicine, received a COVID-19 and Its Cardiovascular Impact Rapid Response Grant from the American Heart Association. The $75,000 award will fund a study on the effect of blood pressure medications on patient infections and outcomes during the pandemic.
Andrew Ji, MD, PhD
Ji, clinical instructor in dermatology, received a physician-scientist training award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The $460,000 grant will fund research into the cellular heterogeneity of squamous cell skin cancers. Ji's mentor on the project is Paul Khavari, MD, PhD, professor of dermatology.
Anna Lembke, MD, and Neil Brast, MD
Lembke, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Brast, adjunct clinical associate professor emeritus in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, received Irma Bland Awards for Excellence in Teaching Residents from the American Psychiatric Association. The award recognizes APA members who have made lasting and important contributions to resident education.
Mary Leonard, MD
Leonard, the Arline and Pete Harman Professor, professor of medicine and professor and chair of pediatrics, has been elected president of the American Pediatric Society. Leonard is also director of the Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute. Her clinical focus is pediatric nephrology. Her research interests include nutrition and the impact of chronic disease on bone metabolism.
Hannah Wild
Hannah Wild, a medical student and affiliate of the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, received a Global Grand Challenge Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The $100,000 award will fund remote sensing and geospatial analysis of nomadic communities so they can be included in health databases and campaigns.
Hang Xu, PhD
Xu, an instructor at the Stanford Cancer Institute, received a New Quantitative Biology Fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The three-year award, totaling $240,000, will allow her to pursue mathematical modeling of chromosome instability, which affects the growth of tumors and their response to therapy. Xu will work with mentors Christina Curtis, PhD, an associate professor of oncology and genetics, and Calvin Kuo, MD, PhD, professor of hematology.
May 2020
Kelley Paskov
Kelley Paskov, a graduate student in biomedical informatics, is a finalist for the National Center for Women & Information Technology Collegiate Award. The award is given to college women of all levels whose projects show creativity and could have a potential impact. Paskov has been researching genetic factors in autism.
Christian Lindmark, Gary Fritz and Gautami Shirhatti
Technology and Digital Solutions, the information technology department of the School of Medicine and Stanford Health Care, received a CIO 100 Award from CIO magazine for technology implemented throughout the new Stanford Hospital. The project was led by Christian Lindmark, vice president and chief technology officer; Gary Fritz, vice president and chief of applications; and Gautami Shirhatti, program director. CIO honors organizations for using information technology in innovative ways to enhance business performance.
Kenneth Mahaffey, MD
A professor of cardiovascular medicine, Mahaffey led a team that received a Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Award from the Clinical Research Forum for “Canagliflozin and Renal Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes and Nephropathy,” published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The award, which includes a $5,000 prize, is for studies with an innovative approach that demonstrate an impact on patients’ well-being.
Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD
A scholar in residence, Salles won an American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation’s John A. Benson Jr., MD, Professionalism Article Prize. Salles is the lead author of “Estimating Implicit and Explicit Gender Bias Among Health Care Professionals and Surgeons,” published in JAMA Network Open. The authors found that health care professionals hold implicit and explicit biases associating men with careers and surgery, and associating women with family and family medicine.
SPARK program
The SPARK program received the 2020 Janet Davison Rowley Patient Impact Research Award from Cures Within Reach. Stanford Medicine’s SPARK program is a collaboration between university researchers and industry experts dedicated to transforming biomedical discoveries into treatments for patients with unmet needs. The award recognizes SPARK’s efforts to repurpose drugs approved for one condition as treatments for other conditions.
Eric Sun
Sun, an incoming PhD candidate in biomedical informatics, was awarded a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. An undergraduate at Harvard University, Sun plans to study the biology of aging and develop ways to explain the mechanisms of complex biological processes. The fellowship, awarded annually to 30 immigrants and children of immigrants, provides $90,000 for two years of graduate school study.
Susan Swetter, MD
Swetter, professor of dermatology, was named chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Melanoma Panel. She has been a member of the network since 2007 and chaired the American Academy of Dermatology melanoma clinical practice guidelines update in 2019. Swetter’s research interests include melanoma epidemiology, prevention and early detection; she is the first dermatologist to chair the network’s melanoma panel.
Yunzhi Peter Yang, PhD, and Greg Zaharchuk, MD, PhD
Yang, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery, and Zaharchuk, professor of radiology, were inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows. Membership in the college is reserved for those who have made outstanding contributions to research, practice or education and have made major advancements in medical and biological engineering.
February 2020
Heike Daldrup-Link, MD, PhD
Daldrup-Link, professor of radiology, received an award from the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation. She and her collaborators will use the $150,000 grant to develop artificial intelligence algorithms that speed up studies of diagnostic imaging in children with cancer.
Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, MD, PhD
Gambhir, professor and chair of radiology, was awarded the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He received the honor, which included a $10,000 prize, for his pioneering work in the development of multimodality molecular imaging, a method now used around the world to study biological processes in living subjects.
Dung Nguyen, MD, PharmD
Nguyen, associate professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery, received a James IV Association of Surgeons Traveling Fellowship award. The $15,000 grant will allow her to spend four weeks traveling to Canada, Ireland and the U.K. to learn about techniques in reconstructive breast surgery, treatment for and prevention of lymphedema, and approaches in surgical training. .
Sergiu Pasca, MD
Pasca, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, won the 2020 C.J. Herrick Award in Neuroanatomy from the American Association for Anatomy. The award honors outstanding basic research contributions to neuroscience. Pasca is recognized for building 3D self-organizing models of the human brain from stem cells and for uncovering fundamental mechanisms of genetic forms of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Manpreet Singh, MD
Singh, associate professor of psychiatry, received the Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Research in Child Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association. The honor, which includes a $2,000 grant, is for outstanding research in child and adolescent psychiatry that has led to, or could lead to, an advancement in promoting the mental health of children.
Mark DeBuse, MD
DeBuse, resident in emergency medicine, was selected as one of 60 scholars in the 2020 Presidential Leadership Scholars program. The awardees travel to presidential centers to learn from former U.S. presidents, administration officials, business and civic leaders, and leading academics.
Deshka Foster, MD
Foster, general surgery resident and PhD candidate in cancer biology, has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health. The award includes more than $65,000 to fund her research into pancreatic tumor fibrosis.
Julia Simard, ScD, and Virginia Winn, MD, PhD
Simard, assistant professor of epidemiology and population health, and Winn, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, have been awarded the 2020 Peter Joseph Pappas research grants from the Preeclampsia Foundation. The grants, totaling $184,624, will fund their research into preeclampsia.
Vanila Singh, MD
Singh, associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, received the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Philipp M. Lippe Award for her work at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well serving as chairwoman of the U.S. Best Practices Inter-agency Pain Management Task Force.
Ranak Trivedi, PhD
Trivedi, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was accepted into Cambia Health Foundation’s Sojourns Scholars Leadership program. She will receive $180,000 to research the unmet needs of South Asian women with breast cancer and their informal caregivers, and to develop an intervention program to address their needs.
Alexei Wagner, MD
Wagner, assistant professor of emergency medicine, led a team that was honored with Stanford Health Care’s Malinda Mitchell Award for Quality. Mitchell is a former president and CEO of Stanford Hospital & Clinics, now Stanford Health Care. Wagner and his team were honored for reducing inpatient mortality and using design-thinking and empathy-building to improve patient outcomes.
