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Stanford Report, March 4, 2009

Medical center people

Matthew Bogyo

Frederick Dirbas

Marius Wernig

Matthew Bogyo, PhD, has been promoted to associate professor of pathology and of microbiology and immunology, and, by courtesy, of chemical and systems biology, as of March 1. His laboratory is interested in developing and applying chemical tools to dissect the functional roles of proteases in a number of human health conditions. Bogyo is currently using synthetic chemistry to build new reagents that allow protease activity to be monitored in complex biological samples including cells, tissues and whole animals.

Frederick Dirbas, MD, has been promoted to associate professor of surgery, as of Feb. 1. His research interests are focused on minimizing the impact of breast cancer from a diagnostic and therapeutic standpoint. Dirbas also serves as director of the clinical care sub-team of the breast disease management group at the Stanford Cancer Center, and sits on the board of directors of the San Francisco affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Marius Wernig, MD, assistant professor of pathology, is the recipient of the 2008 Cozzarelli Prize for biomedical sciences awarded by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Wernig's research interests include epigenetic reprogramming, pluripotent stem cells, neural differentiation and the implications in development and regenerative medicine. He was chosen for a paper he co-authored titled, "Neurons derived from reprogrammed fibroblasts functionally integrate into the fetal brain and improve symptoms of rats with Parkinson's disease." The work was published while Wernig was at MIT, prior to joining the Stanford faculty in December. The award was established in 2005 by the journal to recognize articles of scientific excellence and originality. Papers are chosen from the research articles published in PNAS in a given year. Wernig will be honored at the PNAS editorial board meeting April 26 in Washington, D.C.

Dita Gratzinger, MD, PhD, has been appointed assistant professor of pathology at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and at the Stanford University Medical Center, as of Feb. 1. Her interests are in angiogenesis as well as hematopoietic malignancy. Gratzinger's research currently focuses on vascularity and VEGF signaling in the context of lymphoma.

Lei Xing, PhD, has been promoted to professor of radiation oncology, as of Feb. 1. Much of his research is focused on radiation therapy. One of the major research efforts in Xing's lab is to apply various biological/molecular imaging techniques—such as PET/SPECT, MR spectroscopic imaging, bioluminescent/fluorescent and other optical imaging modalities—to radiation therapy planning and delivery to improve current clinical practice. He is also interested in computer optimization of clinical decision-making and Internet medicine.