STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE COMES TO WASHINGTON
One Cure Does Not Fit All:
Exploring the Frontiers of Personalized
Medicine
Sept. 12, 2005
Washington, D.C.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Laurence Baker, PhD, associate professor of health research and policy, is an expert in the organization and economic performance of the U.S. health-care system. His research focuses on the determinants and effects of technological change in medicine, the effects of managed care on the health-care system, the effects of regulation on health-care markets and physician incomes and career choices. Baker received his PhD in economics from Princeton University
Michael Clarke, MD, who is well known for his work in cancer stem cells, is joining Stanford from the University of Michigan. Clarke was the first scientist to isolate cancer stem cells from a solid tumor. His findings describing the identification of breast cancer stem cells, which were published in 2003, could explain failures in current breast cancer treatments and lead to more effective therapies for numerous types of common malignancies such as ovarian, colon, lung and head and neck cancers. Effective Sept. 1, Clarke will serve as associate director of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.
Gary Glazer, MD, is professor and chair in the Department of Radiology. Under his leadership, Stanford's programs in MRI and the developing field of molecular imaging have flourished; Stanford Radiology is now recognized as a world leader in medical imaging. Glazer's own research focuses on tissue characterization and the monitoring of cancer therapies. He came to Stanford from the University of Michigan, where his work in the imaging staging of lung cancer received international recognition and was adopted in the 1980s as routine clinical practice.
Stefanie Jeffrey, MD, associate professor of surgery and chief of surgical oncology research, was a member of the collaborative team that pioneered the use of cDNA microarrays to study genetic material within a cancer. Her lab continues to focus on breast cancer genomics research, using DNA microarrays to analyze gene expression patterns in diverse breast tumors. Her other research interests include the use of a multisensor NASA Smart Probe that she co-developed to study in-vivo physiologic changes in breast tumors.
Ron Levy, MD, is professor and chief of the Division of Oncology. Internationally recognized as a research pioneer in the field of cancer, Levy was the first scientist to generate and use monoclonal antibodies — disease-fighting proteins made by the body — to treat patients with lymphoma. He continues to develop new therapies based on the immune system; he is now overseeing clinical trials for patients with B cell lymphoma who have been vaccinated against the receptors expressed by their own tumor cells. Levy has been on faculty at Stanford since 1975 and has received several prestigious awards.
David Magnus, PhD, is director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and an associate professor of pediatrics and of medicine. He also leads the bioethics initiative within the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Magnus received his PhD in philosophy from Stanford and has published articles on a range of topics in bioethics, including issues concerning genetic technology. He came to Stanford from the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Philip Pizzo, MD, became dean of Stanford's School of Medicine in 2001. Before arriving at Stanford, he was the physician-in-chief of Children's Hospital in Boston and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Pizzo devoted much of his distinguished medical career to the diagnosis, management, prevention and treatment of childhood cancers and the infectious complications that occur in children whose immune systems are compromised by cancer and AIDS. Pizzo is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Outstanding Service Medal from the U.S. Public Health Service.
Charles Taylor, PhD, is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a Bio-X investigator. He received his PhD from Stanford before joining the faculty here. His laboratory work focuses on quantifying the anatomic structure and physiologic response of the human vascular system under normal, diseased and surgically altered states; implementing methods for improving vascular disease diagnosis, surgical planning and prosthesis design; and creating transferable technology for use by medical professionals and disseminating results to scientific and medical communities. Taylor recently won the Young Investigator in Computational Mechanics Award from the International Association for Computational Mechanics.