Dr. Frederick Dirbas's research interests are focused on improving therapy of breast cancer by refining existing diagnostic and treatment options, as well as introducing new methods that reduce side effects and improve quality of life for affected patients. Focuses include breast surgical oncology, accelerated partial breast irradiation, intraoperative radiotherapy, radiobiology of breast cancer, identification of markers of resistance to chemotherapy and radiation, and breast cancer stem cells.

Dr. Florentine Rutaganira uses choanoflagellates - the closest living single-celled relatives to animals - to study the origin of animal cell communication. Dr. Rutaganira applies chemical, genetic, and cell biological tools to probe choanoflagellate cell-cell communication, with implications for understanding not only animal cell signaling, but also the origin of multicellularity in animals.

Dr. Fernando Alarid-Escudero is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University School of Medicine. He obtained his Ph.D. in Health Decision Sciences from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. His research focuses on developing statistical and decision-analytic models to identify optimal prevention, control, and treatment policies and conducting cost-effectiveness analyses to address a wide range of public health problems. He has also developed novel methods to quantify the value of future research. Dr.