Alex K. Shalek, PhD
Pfizer-Laubach Career Development Associate Professor
Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Department of Chemistry and Koch Institute
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract: While several methods exist for sampling tissues in clinical contexts, without high-fidelity tools for comprehensively profiling them, we are both limited in our capacity to understand how constituent cells and their interactions impact prognosis, and to select and develop precision therapeutics. Recent years have witnessed transformative and intersecting advances in nanofabrication and molecular biology that now enable deep profiling of low-input samples. Collectively, these afford new and exciting opportunities to study cellular heterogeneity, starting from the level of the single cell, and may unlock the diagnostic, prognostic, and discovery potential of clinical isolates. Illustratively, I will introduce how we can leverage single-cell genomic approaches – and, in particular, single-cell RNA-Seq – to explore the extensive functional diversity between cells, uncovering, from the “bottom-up,” distinct cell states and their molecular drivers. Moreover, I will discuss high-throughput experimental strategies and demonstrate, in the context of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, how they can be leveraged to achieve the statistical power necessary to reconstruct intracellular circuits, enumerate and redefine cell states and types, and transform our understanding of cellular decision-making in health and disease on a genomic scale.
Bio: Alex K. Shalek is currently the Pfizer-Laubach Career Development Associate Professor at MIT, as well as a Core Member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), an Associate Professor of Chemistry, and an Extramural Member of The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. He is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute, an Associate Member of the Ragon Institute, an Assistant in Immunology at MGH, and an Instructor in Health Sciences and Technology at HMS. His research is directed towards the development and application of new technologies that facilitate understanding of how cells collectively perform systems-level functions in healthy and diseased states. Dr. Shalek received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Columbia University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in chemical physics under the guidance of Hongkun Park, and performed postdoctoral training under Hongkun Park and Aviv Regev (Broad/MIT). To date, his interdisciplinary research has focused on realizing and utilizing nanoscale manipulation and measurement technologies to examine how small components (molecules, cells) drive systems of vast complexity (cellular responses, population behaviors).
Muna Aryal Rizal, PhD
Mentor: Jeremy Dahl, PhD and Raag Airan, MD, PhD
Noninvasive Focused Ultrasound Accelerates Glymphatic Transport to Bypass the Blood-Brain Barrier
ABSTRACT
Recent advancement in neuroscience revealed that the Central Nervous System (CNS) comprise glial-cell driven lymphatic system and coined the term called “Glymphatic pathway” by Neuroscientist, Maiden Nedergaard. Furthermore, it has been proven in rodent and non-human primate studies that the glymphatic exchange efficacy can decay in healthy aging, alzheimer’s disease models, traumatic brain injury, cerebral hemorrhage, and stroke. Studies in rodents have also shown that the glymphatic function can accelerate by doing easily-implemented, interventions like physical exercise, changes in body posture during sleep, intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and low dose alcohol (0.5 g/kg). Here, we proposed for the first time to accelerate the glymphatic function by manipulating the whole-brain ultrasonically using focused ultrasound, an emerging clinical technology that can noninvasively reach virtually throughout the brain. During this SCIT seminar, I will introduce the new ultrasonic approach to accelerates glymphatic transport and will share some preliminary findings.
Eduardo Somoza, MD
Mentor: Sandy Napel, PhD
Prediction of Clinical Outcomes in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) Utilizing Radiomic Features Derived from Pretreatment Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scan
ABSTRACT
Diffuse Large B-Cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of lymphoma, accounting for a third of cases worldwide. Despite advancements in treatment, the five-year percent survival for this patient population is around sixty percent. This indicates a clinical need for being able to predict outcomes before the initiation of standard treatment. The approach we will be employing to address this need is the creation of a prognostic model from pretreatment clinical data of DLBCL patients seen at Stanford University Medical Center. In particular, there will be a focus on the derivation of radiomic features from pretreatment positron emission tomography (PET) scans as this has not been thoroughly investigated in similar published research efforts. We will layout the framework for our approach, with an emphasis on the aspects of our design that will allow for the translation of our efforts to multiple clinical settings. More importantly, we will discuss the importance and challenges of assembling a quality clinical database for this type of research. Ultimately, we hope our efforts will lead to the development of a prognostic model that can be utilized to guide treatment in DLBCL patients with refractory disease and/or high risk of relapse after completion of standard treatment.
The Office of Accessible Education and Apple present:
Apple Accessibility: Tools for Everyone
Did you know Apple has built-in accessibility features such as Voice Control? Join us to find out how to customize your Apple iPhone, Mac, or iPad with this and more so that it works best for you.
Presentation Schedules:
- 3:45 – 4:10: Improve Vision | The tools that let you better see the content on your Apple device
- 4:15 – 4:40: Enhance Learning | Text to Speech, Word Completion and tools to reduce distractions
- 4:45 – 5:15: Tips and Tricks | Use accessibility features to get more out of your iPhone, iPad or Mac
Plus breakout sessions so you can ask specific questions about Apple’s accessibility features.
Please drop by for any or all of these sessions
Questions? Email rlcole@stanford.edu
“Tumor-Immune Interactions in TNBC Brain Metastases”
Maxine Umeh Garcia, PhD
ABSTRACT: It is estimated that metastasis is responsible for 90% of cancer deaths, with 1 in every 2 advanced staged triple-negative breast cancer patients developing brain metastases – surviving as little as 4.9 months after metastatic diagnosis. My project hypothesizes that the spatial architecture of the tumor microenvironment reflects distinct tumor-immune interactions that are driven by receptor-ligand pairing; and that these interactions not only impact tumor progression in the brain, but also prime the immune system (early on) to be tolerant of disseminated cancer cells permitting brain metastases. The main goal of my project is to build a model that recapitulates tumor-immune interactions in brain-metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, and use this model to identify novel druggable targets to improve survival outcomes in patients with devastating brain metastases.
“Classification of Malignant and Benign Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors With An Open Source Feature Selection Platform”
Michael Zhang, MD
ABSTRACT: Radiographic differentiation of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) from benign PNSTs is a diagnostic challenge. The former is associated with a five-year survival rate of 30-50%, and definitive management requires gross total surgical with wide negative margins in areas of sensitive neurologic function. This presentation describes a radiomics approach to pre-operatively identifying a diagnosis, thereby possibly avoiding surgical complexity and debilitating symptoms. Using an open-source, feature extraction platform and machine learning, we produce a radiographic signature for MPNSTs based on routine MRI.
Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars (SMIS) Program
Quarterly Seminar
Andrew Groll, PhD
Mentor: Craig Levin, PhD
“Initial Experimental Images from a CZT Preclinical PET System”
Brian Lee, PhD
Mentors: Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD; Craig Levin, PhD
“Precision Health Toilet for Cancer Screening”
Stanford School of Medicine’s
1st Annual Conference on Disability in Healthcare and Medicine
Saturday, June 20, 2020
8:00am – 2:30pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
Zoom Webinar
The conference goals are:
- Supporting students and healthcare providers with disabilities
- Training healthcare providers to better care for patients with disabilities
- Research into the intersection of providers and patients with disabilities
Target audience:
- Nursing students and nurses
- PA students and PA’s
- Medical students and medical doctors
- All other interested healthcare providers and allies
Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars (SMIS) Program Quarterly Seminar
Zoom meeting: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/99117388314?pwd=R29OSjlTdUt0a3pLaG5Zc1BFNTJIUT09
Password: 922183
Guolan Lu, PhD
Mentor: Eben Rosenthal, MD; Garry Nolan, PhD
“Co-administered Antibody Improves the Penetration of Antibody-Dye Conjugates into Human Cancers: Implications for AntibodyDrug Conjugates”
Dianna Jeong, PhD
Mentors: Craig Levin, PhD; Shan Wang, PhD
“Novel Detection Approaches for Achieving Ultra-fast time resolution for PET”
Join us for the 3rd Annual Diversity and Inclusion Forum on Friday, October 9, 2020 on Zoom! This virtual event will highlight innovative workshops developed by our residents and fellows with their educational mentors who have participated in the 2019-2020 cohort of the Leadership Education in Advancing Diversity Program.
The event will be an enriching opportunity for all faculty, residents, fellows, postdocs, students, staff, and community members to learn tools and strategies to enable them to become effective change agents for diversity, equity, and inclusion in medical education.
All are welcome to participate and we look forward to seeing you on Friday, October 9!
Register here:
https://mailchi.mp/046c21726371/diversityforum2020-1632872?e=4a913cab2d
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month, join the Stanford Medicine Abilities Coalition (SMAC) for a first of its kind StanfordMed LIVE event focused on disability. Now more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, disabilities, health conditions, and illness impact not only our patients but also all of us, both personally and as members of the Stanford Medicine community. Stanford Medicine leadership will share information, answer questions, and engage in a roundtable discussion about the state of disability at Stanford and how best to support faculty, staff, and students living with disability and chronic illness. We encourage our community to submit questions and comments here to be shared broadly with the Stanford Medicine community. The same link can be used to request any accommodations needed for the livestream. Additional information for the webcast itself will be sent out closer to the event.
Livestream link: https://livestream.com/accounts/1973198/events/9288854