Skip to content Skip to navigation

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.

Stanford-led team simulates how Alzheimer’s disease spreads through the brain
October 12, 2018 - Stanford News
A new computer model from Stanford Bio-X affiliated faculty member Ellen Kuhl maps how misshapen proteins associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and ALS spread throughout the brain. The work, supported by a Stanford Bio-X IIP Seed Grant, could aid in finding ways to diagnose and treat these neurodegenerative disorders.

New strategy against glioblastoma tumor: molecular scissors release drug
June 29, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Stanford Bio-X affiliated faculty Heike Daldrup-Link, Jianghong Rao, Sam Gambhir, Samuel Cheshier, and Frederick Chin are trying to deliver drugs by way of an enzyme that sticks out from glioblastoma cells.
Stanford engineers design a robotic gripper for cleaning up space debris
June 28, 2017 - Stanford News
Stanford Bio-X affiliated faculty Mark Cutkosky's group combined gecko-inspired adhesives and a custom robotic gripper and tested it in multiple zero gravity settings, including the International Space Station.
Sleep disturbances predict increased risk for suicidal symptoms
June 28, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Among young adults at risk for suicide, highly variable sleep patterns may augur an increase in suicidal symptoms, independent of depression, a study from Stanford Bio-X affiliate Rebecca Bernert has found.
The radiation-exposed corals of Bikini Atoll may hold insights on cancer
June 28, 2017 - Stanford News
Stanford Bio-X affiliated faculty Stephen Palumbi is exploring how corals that re-colonized Bikini Atoll after nuclear bomb tests 70 years ago have adapted to persistent radiation. The work is featured in a PBS series.
Researchers develop technique for assessing, reducing risk of future stroke
June 28, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Using health records, Stanford Bio-X affiliate Nigam Shah's group developed an algorithm for scoring the risk of stroke patients experiencing atrial fibrillation, a major risk factor for a second stroke.
Progress in search for vaccine for scourge of developing-world infants
June 27, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Stanford Bio-X affiliates Harry Greenberg and William Robinson zeroed in on a few structural components of rotavirus that appear to be similar enough from one strain to the next that a single vaccine might generate antibodies effective against all strains.
Stanford scientists create a cellular guillotine for studying single-cell wound repair
June 26, 2017 - Stanford News
Bio-X affiliate Sindy Tang developed a microscopic guillotine to try to learn how single cells repair wounds, which could lead to self-healing materials and machines.
Early cardiology care linked to lower risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation
June 26, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Atrial fibrillation patients who got early cardiology care had a reduced risk of stroke, Bio-X affiliates Mintu Turakhia, Sanjiv Narayan, and Paul J. Wang found.
New method could take a snapshot of the whole brain in action
June 26, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
The research, from Stanford Bio-X affiliated faculty member and Clark Center faculty member Alice Ting, emerged out of neuroscientists’ frustration with their inability to capture a fine-grained picture of what the whole brain was doing in experiments.
U.S. policies on drugs and addiction could use a dose of neuroscience
June 22, 2017 - Stanford News
The nation’s drug policies are based on unproven assumptions about addiction. Bio-X affiliates Brian Knutson and Rob Malenka explain that neuroscience could help shape more effective policies and save lives.
Researchers use long-read genome sequencing for first time in a patient
June 22, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Bio-X affiliates Euan Ashley, Stephen Montgomery, and James Ford and 2010 Bio-X SIGF Fellow Aaron Wenger have used a technology called long-read sequencing to diagnose a patient’s rare genetic condition that current technology failed to diagnose.
Stanford health researcher wins prize for using statistics to prevent rapes in Kenya
June 22, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Bio-X affiliate Mike Baiocchi applies statistics in ways that could improve global health. His latest project is a study on a massive rape-prevention program in Kenya.
What tiny antennae on our cells can tell us about the genetics of obesity
June 21, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Researchers including Bio-X affiliates Peter Jackson and Edward Plowey have not only solved one of the thornier mysteries about how obesity works, they’ve made a discovery they think could help tame the global obesity epidemic.
How to encourage muscle stem cells to replace missing muscle? A familiar home, a few friends and some healthy exercise
June 20, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Research from Bio-X affiliate Thomas Rando and 2008 Bio-X Fellow Melinda Cromie has outlined a 3-part approach that, in mice, helps muscle stem cells grow new tissue.
In northern humans, evolution favored shorter bones — but with a painful trade-off
July 3, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Humans in Europe and Asia evolved shorter bones and an increased risk of osteo-arthritis, which may have helped in colder climates, Bio-X affiliate David Kingsley finds.
Thousands of genes influence most diseases
June 20, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
In a provocative new perspective piece, researchers under Bio-X affiliate Jonathan Pritchard say that disease genes are spread uniformly across the genome, not clustered in specific molecular pathways, as has been thought.
Scientists turbocharge high-resolution, 3-D imaging
June 20, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Bio-X affiliates Adam de la Zerda, Steve Chu, and Darius Moshfeghi and Bio-X Bowes Fellow Orly Liba have found a simple, low-cost fix that substantially improves optical scanning images, opening the door to "virtual biopsies."
Space robot technology helps self-driving cars and drones on Earth
June 16, 2017 - Stanford News
Space robots utilizing work by Bio-X affiliate Mark Cutkosky that are traveling through space, hauling debris and exploring distant asteroids, may hold the technological key to problems facing drones and autonomous cars here on Earth.
Newly identified process of gene regulation challenges accepted science
June 15, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Ribosomes are startlingly variable in their composition and associations, which confers on them the ability to regulate genes, confounding previous ideas, Bio-X affiliates Maria Barna and Mary Teruel say. The work is partially supported by an IIP Seed Grant.
Stanford scientists explore using photosynthesis to help damaged hearts
June 14, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
In the ongoing hunt to find better treatments for heart disease, research from Bio-X affiliate Joseph Woo and Bio-X USRP participant Alexandra Bourdillon shows promising results using an unusual strategy: photosynthetic bacteria and light.
DNA left by ocean animals provides rare glimpse of marine ecosystems
June 13, 2017 - Stanford News
Ocean animals leave behind DNA in shed cells, tissues, scales and feces. Scientists including Bio-X affiliate Alexandria Boehm have shown these genetic clues can be used as forensic markers to survey marine life in complex deep-water environments.
Stanford inventor designs low-cost science tools for the world
June 12, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Bio-X affiliate Manu Prakash designs low-cost scientific instruments, including a $1 microscope made of folded paper, a 20-cent blood centrifuge and a $5 programmable chemistry set made from a toy hand-crank music box.
Heart patients’ shingles risk tied to glucose-gobbling immune cells
June 12, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
People with coronary artery disease face an elevated risk for shingles because aberrant immune cells dial down the body’s immune response to viral pathogens, Stanford research from Bio-X affiliates Cornelia Weyand and Jorg Goronzy shows.
Inflammatory molecule essential to muscle regeneration in mice
June 12, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Bio-X affiliates Helen Blau and Scott Delp and Travel Awardees Adelaida Palla and Nora Yucel have found that a metabolite stimulates mouse muscle stem cells to proliferate after injury. Anti-inflammatory drugs block its production and inhibit muscle repair.
In gene expression, separating the gold from the dross
June 8, 2017 - Stanford Medicine Scope
Bio-X affiliate Purvesh Khatri has developed a method to evaluate the expression of human genes in response to different diseases or conditions, which could identify ways to diagnose tuberculosis or predict which patients will likely reject organ transplants.
Mouse lemur could serve as ideal model for human disease
June 7, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Bio-X affiliates Mark Krasnow and Megan Albertelli have identified more than 20 mouse lemurs with genetic traits for conditions such as heart disease and eye problems, making the tiny primates potentially useful for understanding diseases in humans.
Police officers speak less respectfully to black residents than to white residents, researchers find
June 5, 2017 - Stanford News
Bio-X affiliate Dan Jurafsky and other Stanford researchers detected racial disparities in police officers’ speech in body camera footage from Oakland Police.
Do you feel like we do? Psychologists examine how culture guides giving
June 1, 2017 - Stanford News
New research by Stanford psychologists including Bio-X affiliate Brian Knutson analyzes cultural effects on giving, finding that people are willing to offer more money to others who display similar emotional expressions.
Technique pinpoints the ‘partners in crime’ of cancer genes
May 31, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Targeting backup biological pathways used by cancers can lead to more efficient drug development and less-toxic therapies. Researchers under Bio-X affiliates Ravi Majeti, David Dill, and Erinn Rankin have developed a new way to identify these pathways.
Karl Deisseroth wins 4 million euros Fresenius Research Prize
May 31, 2017 - Stanford Medicine News Center
Stanford psychiatrist, neuroscientist, bioengineer and Bio-X affiliated faculty member Karl Deisseroth will be honored for three distinct contributions to the medical field: optogenetics, hydrogel-tissue chemistry and research into depression.

Pages