Highlights

Stanford Bio-X affiliated faculty members and fellows are generating scientific advances that expand our understanding of how the body works and will ultimately improve human health. These news stories and press releases describe some of those breakthroughs.

Ellen Kuhl named director of Stanford Bio-X

March 29, 2024 - Stanford News
Kuhl aims to continue Bio-X’s legacy of facilitating multidisciplinary fundamental research and innovation.

Using water to improve life in global slums

February 2, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Bio-X affiliate Stephen Luby has been tapped to direct the health evaluation of a project to use water management strategies to potentially improve the lives of more than a billion people globally.
Can we simulate blood flows to improve heart surgery?

January 31, 2017 - Stanford Engineering
Bio-X affiliate Alison Marsden explains that computer based simulations would enable physicians to test different treatment options and provide a way to choose the best strategy for each patient.
A new brain mapping technique reveals circuitry of Parkinson’s tremors

January 26, 2017 - Stanford News
The new technique, from Bio-X affiliate Jin Hyung Lee and Bio-X Fellow Andrew Weitz, probes the neural pathways that cause Parkinson's disease tremors, and also provides a way to map and troubleshoot other circuits in the whole brain.
Deep learning algorithm does as well as dermatologists in identifying skin cancer

January 25, 2017 - Stanford News
In hopes of creating better access to medical care, Stanford researchers under Bio-X affiliate Helen Blau have trained an algorithm to diagnose skin cancer.
Rat-grown mouse pancreases help reverse diabetes in mice

January 25, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Growing organs from one species in another may one day relieve transplant shortages. Researchers under Bio-X affiliate Hiromitsu Nakauchi show that islets from rat-grown mouse pancreases can reverse disease when transplanted into diabetic mice.
Autoimmunity and cancer: Flip sides of the same coin?

January 24, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Bio-X affiliates Connie Weyand and Jorg Goronzy have discovered that in giant cell arteritis, in which the immune system attacks the aorta, the immune response is too strong because an immune checkpoint isn’t braking hard enough.
Mom vs. dad?: Some brain genes favor one parent over the other

January 24, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
New research from Bio-X affiliates Howard Chang, Robert Tibshirani, and William Greenleaf has uncovered a new genetic phenomenon that ensures that, for some genes, one parent’s influence dominates.
Keeping mosquitoes in check to prevent widespread disease

January 23, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Bio-X affiliate Desiree LaBeaud and colleagues in Kenya have devised a prevention project at multiple sites around Kenya to educate people about how to prevent mosquito breeding in local water sources.
New study hints at why infamous gene variant increases odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease

January 19, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Bio-X affiliates Tom Südhof and Marius Wernig have established a connection that may help explain why different genes confer differential Alzheimer’s susceptibilities.
Bodywide immune response important for fighting cancer

January 19, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Effective anti-tumor activity requires a systemic immune response at the tumor site. A study from Bio-X affiliates Edgar Engleman and Garry Nolan may help clinicians pinpoint why only some cancer patients respond to immunotherapies.
Toxic brain cells may drive many neurodegenerative disorders

January 18, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Astrocytes, star-shaped cells in the central nervous system, are essential to the survival and healthy function of brain neurons. But aberrant astrocytes may be driving neurodegenerative disorders, Bio-X affiliates Ben Barres and Marion Buckwalter find.
Technique reveals movements of immune cells as they hunt for tumors

January 18, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
In the culmination of a 10-year-long effort, researchers under Bio-X affiliate Sam Gambhir have demonstrated the first visualization of human immune cells as they track down brain tumor cells in living patients.
Stanford launches digital health center to connect faculty with companies

January 17, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
The new center, which will be led by Stanford faculty including Bio-X affiliate Mintu Turakhia, aims to advance the field of digital health by enabling collaborations between faculty and industry.
Caffeine may counter age-related inflammation

January 16, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
A chronic inflammatory process that occurs in some, but not all, older people may trigger cardiovascular problems, a study from Bio-X affiliates Mark Davis, Francois Haddad, Garry Nolan, and Calvin Kuo and Bio-X Fellow Gabriela Fragiadakis shows.
Real-time scans of self-healing nanoparticles show their energy storage potential

January 16, 2017 - Stanford News
Researchers under Bio-X affiliate Jennifer Dionne recorded reactions at near-atomic-scale resolution, another step toward building a better battery.
Researchers identify source of opioids’ side effects

January 16, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Researchers under Bio-X affiliates Gregory Scherrer, David Clark, and Ben Barres, including Bio-X Fellow Jasmine Dickinson, have identified the receptors to which opioids bind to produce tolerance to the drugs and increased sensitivity to pain.
Wearable sensors can tell when you are getting sick

January 12, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
New research from Bio-X affiliates Michael Snyder and Tracey McLaughlin shows that fitness monitors and other wearable biosensors can tell when an individual’s heart rate, skin temperature and other measures are abnormal, suggesting possible illness.
Resetting leukemia cells

January 12, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Bio-X affiliate Ravindra Majeti and then postdoctoral fellow Mark Chao became the first to reset a human leukemia cell to a nearly embryonic state as an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell.
Diabetes impairs activity of bone stem cells in mice, inhibits fracture repair

January 11, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Bio-X affiliates Michael Longaker, Geoffrey Gurtner, Philip Beachy, Fan Yang, Stuart Goodman, and Irving Weissman found that activating bone stem cells helps repair fractures in diabetic mice. Applying a protein to the fracture site enhanced healing.
Researchers announce master plan for better science

January 10, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Nature Publishing Group has launched a new journal and its inaugural issue includes a “manifesto for reproducible science” co-authored by Bio-X affiliate John Ioannidis.
Inspired by a whirligig toy, Stanford bioengineers develop a 20-cent, hand-powered blood centrifuge

January 10, 2017 - Stanford News
Bioengineers under Bio-X affiliate Manu Prakash have developed an ultra-low-cost, human-powered centrifuge that separates blood plasma from red cells in 1.5 minutes.
Apply for the 2017 Stanford Bio-X, Stanford Neurosciences Institute (SNI), and Stanford ChEM-H Fellowships!

January 9, 2017
The Stanford Bio-X Leadership Council is pleased to announce the 14th annual competition for Stanford Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowships.
Stanford study shows that tissue in the brain, rather than being lost, grows across childhood and may underlie better face recognition

January 5, 2017 - Stanford News
A study from Bio-X affiliate Kalanit Grill-Spector finds that the amount of brain tissue does not only decrease through our lives: in some cases the brain can also add tissue.
Stanford updates app for sharing data on heart health

January 5, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
A new version of the free MyHeart Counts app is available. It now features graphical feedback, interventions and coaching. Bio-x affiliate Euan Ashely is the principal investigator for the MyHeart Counts study.
In Stanford study, worms dine on nanoparticles to help test biological force sensor technology

January 1, 2017 - Stanford News
Supported by a Bio-X Seed Grant, Bio-X affiliated faculty Jennifer Dionne and Miriam Goodman have teamed up to unravel the biological forces at play within our bodies. The first phase: feeding nanoparticles to worms.
Genetics: A look back at the first 100 years

December 29, 2016 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Members of Bio-X affiliates Jonathan Pritchard's and Marcus Feldman's labs have taken time to explore the history of genetics research, mining all the papers published in GENETICS since its inception to find drivers of scientific innovation.
Some glioblastoma patients benefit from ‘ineffective’ treatment

December 22, 2016 - Stanford Medicine News Center
A study from Bio-X affiliates Daniel Rubin, Olivier Gevaert, Griffith Harsh, and Steven Chang shows that glioblastoma patients with a high degree of vascularization of their tumors were found to have benefited from a treatment previously deemed ineffective.
Gene activity predicts progression of autoimmune disease

December 22, 2016 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Researchers under Bio-X affiliates Purvesh Khatri, David Fiorentino, and PJ Utz have found a way to tell whether patients with systemic sclerosis were improving during drug treatment a year before a standard clinical test could.
Stem cells give scientists a new window into the biology of a rare disease

December 22, 2016 - Stanford Medicine Scope
New research from Bio-X affiliates Marlene Rabinovitch, Michael Snyder, and Joseph Wu provides a great example of how stem-cell techniques can help researchers overcome an otherwise-insurmountable research challenge.
Starfish larvae create complex water whorls to eat and run

December 19, 2016 - Stanford News
Bio-X affiliate Manu Prakash finds that tiny starfish larvae employ a complex and previously unknown survival mechanism involving whorls of water that either bring food to them or speed them away to better feeding grounds.

Pages