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Seed Grant Committee

This committee of 22 members is charged with reviewing the seed grants and naming the awardees. The faculty in this committee are from 17 different departments. Harvey Cohen is the Chair of the Seed Grant Review Committee.

William Weis - William M. Hume Professor in the School of Medicine, Professor of Structural Biology, of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and of Photon Science
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
Stanford Profile
Structural Biology Homepage
Dr. Weis's laboratory studies molecular interactions that underlie the establishment and maintenance of cell and tissue structure.
Daniel Palanker - Director of the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory and Professor of Ophthalmology and (by courtesy) of Electrical Engineering
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
Stanford Profile
Dr. Palanker's Lab Homepage
The primary focus of Dr. Daniel Palanker's research is in interactions of electric field (including light) with biological cells and tissues.
Sarah Heilshorn - Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and (by courtesy) of Bioengineering and of Chemical Engineering
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Heilshorn's Lab Homepage
Dr. Heilshorn's interests include biomaterials in regenerative medicine, engineered proteins with novel assembly properties, microfluidics and photolithography of proteins, and synthesis of materials to influence stem cell differentiation.
Carla Shatz - Catherine Holman Johnson Director of Stanford Bio-X, Sapp Family Provostial Professor, Professor of Biology and Neurobiology
Executive Committee Member, Seed Grant Committee Member, Scientific Leadership Council Chair, Clark Center Faculty, Clark Center Working Group Member
Stanford Profile
Dr. Shatz's Lab Webpage
To discover cell and molecular underpinnings of circuit tuning, the Shatz lab has conducted functional screens for genes regulated by neural activity.
Harvey Cohen - Deborah E. Addicott - John A. Kriewall and Elizabeth A. Haehl Family Professor in Pediatrics
Seed Grant Committee Chair, Scientific Leadership Council Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
Stanford Profile
Dr. Cohen's Lab Webpage
Dr. Cohen's research interests extend from hypothesis-driven studies in biochemistry and cell biology to discovery-driven interests in proteomics and systems biology to clinical treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia of children.
Heideh Fattaey, Ph.D. - Executive Director of Operations and Programs, Stanford Bio-X
Executive Committee Member, Seed Grant Committee Member, Scientific Leadership Council Member, Clark Center Working Group Member
CAP Profile
Shirit Einav - Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Seed Grant Committee Member, Scientific Leadership Council Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Einav's Lab Homepage
The Einav lab's goal is to better understand the roles of virus-host interactions in the viral lifecycle and pathogenesis and identify host functions required by multiple unrelated viruses.
Xiaoke Chen - Associate Professor of Biology
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Chen's Lab Homepage
Dr. Chen's laboratory long-term goal is to understand how sensory information and physiological state integrate to drive decisions and behaviors.
Axel Brunger - Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, of Photon Science, and (by courtesy) of Structural Biology
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty, Clark Center Faculty
Stanford Profile
Dr. Brunger's Lab Webpage
Dr. Axel Brunger's laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter release, and how these mechanisms relate to physiological function.
Ellen Kuhl - Professor of Mechanical Engineering and (by courtesy) of Cardiothoracic Surgery and of Bioengineering
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
Stanford Profile
Dr. Kuhl's Department Homepage
Dr. Kuhl's Lab Homepage
Dr. Ellen Kuhl's area of professional expertise is living matter physics, the creation of theoretical and computational models to predict the acute and chronic response of living structures to environmental changes during development and disease progression.
Martha Cyert - Professor of Biology
Seed Grant Committee, Scientific Leadership Council Member
CAP Profile
Dr. Cyert's Lab Webpage
Research in the Cyert lab has three major goals: elaborate calcineurin signaling networks; elucidate calcineurin function; and define how calcineurin recognizes and dephosphorylates substrates.
Gill Bejerano - Associate Professor of Developmental Biology, of Computer Science, and of Pediatrics (Genetics)
Seed Grant Committee, Leadership Council Member, & Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Bejerano's Lab Homepage
The Bejerano Lab studies genome function in human and related species.
Scott Delp - James H. Clark Professor in the School of Engineering, Professor of Bioengineering, of Mechanical Engineering and (by courtesy) of Orthopaedic Surgery
Seed Grant Committee Member, Scientific Leadership Council Member, Clark Center Faculty, Clark Center Working Group Member
CAP Profile
NeuroMuscular Biomechanics Lab (NMBL) Homepage
Dr. Delp's work draws on computational mechanics, medical imaging, and neuromuscular biology to improve treatments for neurologic and musculoskeletal diseases.
Richard Zare - Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science and Professor of Chemistry and (by courtesy) of Physics
Seed Grant Committee Member, Scientific Leadership Council Member, Clark Center Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Zare's Biosketch
Dr. Zare's Lab Homepage
A pioneer in the use of lasers to study chemical reactions at the molecular level, Dr. Zare pursues diverse theoretical and experimental interests in physical chemistry and nanoscale chemical analysis.
Dean Felsher - Professor of Medicine and of Pathology, Director of TRAM
Seed Grant Committee Member & Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Felsher's School of Medicine Lab Homepage
Translational Research and Applied Medicine (TRAM) Program Homepage
Dr. Felsher's laboratory investigates how oncogenes initiate and sustain tumorigenesis.
Jill Helms - Professor of Surgery (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery)
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
CAP Profile
The long-term goal of this component of Dr. Helms's research program is to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating normal and abnormal craniofacial development.
Brian Knutson - Professor of Psychology
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
Stanford Profile
Symbiotic Project on Affective Neuroscience (SPAN) Lab Homepage
Dr. Knutson's primary interest is in the neural basis of emotion: he believes that a certain class of neurotransmitters (the biogenic amines) can powerfully modulate emotional experience at specific brain locations.
Theo Palmer - Associate Professor of Neurosurgery
Seed Grant Committee Member & Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Palmer's School of Medicine Lab Homepage
Dr. Palmer's lab's research examines how neural stem cells respond to genetic and environmental cues to add and integrate new neurons into functional circuits.
Sylvia Plevritis - Professor of Radiology (General Radiology), of Biomedical Data Science, and (by courtesy) of Management Science and Engineering
Seed Grant Committee Member, Scientific Leadership Council Member, Clark Center Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Plevritis's School of Medicine Lab Homepage
Dr. Plevritis's research program focuses on computational modeling of cancer biology and cancer outcomes.
Christina Smolke - Associate Professor of Bioengineering and (by courtesy) of Chemical Engineering
Seed Grant Committee Member, Bio-X Affiliated Faculty
CAP Profile
Dr. Smolke's Lab Homepage
Dr. Smolke's research program focuses on developing modular genetic platforms for programming information processing and control functions in living systems, resulting in transformative technologies for engineering, manipulating, and probing biological systems.

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