Dr. Jill Helms is a Professor in the Department of Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine, and her research focuses on understanding why healing slows as we age. Dr. Helms's lab has found that many such age-related changes can be traced back to sluggish stem cells, and the group has developed methods to re-activate a patient’s own stem cells for therapeutic intervention in a broad range of conditions affecting bone, cartilage, skin, and hair and beyond. 

While conducting clinically relevant research is my main objective, it goes hand-in-hand with another goal: Dr. Helms believes that education is one of the most important tools to improving human health, and she aims to use every avenue available to transform the way people think about science and medicine and emphasize its contribution to our daily lives. One particular passion is introducing young people to the power and beauty of science, through a summer internship on campus. In Dr. Helms's new role as Vice-Chair for Diversity and Inclusion, she also has the great, good fortune to work with exceptional colleagues, students, and community partners to tackle some of the most persistent inequities in healthcare.

Dr. Helms's research program in the field of regeneration medicine is inspired by collaborations with experts in bioengineering, materials science, physics, and with colleagues in the life sciences. We focus on developing strategies to improve tissue healing through the re-activation of autologous stem cells. Adult stem cells are critical regenerative precursors that, when activated, control tissue regeneration. The lab is developing clinically relevant methods to drive the self-renewal and proliferation of adult stem cells in the context of wound repair.