Stanford School of Medicine
The Rabinovitch/Bland Lab

People

Principal Investigators

Marlene Rabinovitch, M.D.
Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatrics
Professor (by courtesy) Developmental Biology
Research Director, Vera Moulton Wall Center
for Pulmonary Vascular Disease
email Dr Rabinovitch

Dr. Rabinovitch was recruited to Stanford University in the summer of 2002 as the Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, and Director of Research of the Vera Moulton Wall Center for Pulmonary Vascular Disease at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Professor (by courtesy) of Developmental Biology. Dr. Rabinovitch is a graduate of McGill University Medical School in 1971, and served on the medical faculty at Harvard, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and at the University of Toronto where she was the Director of Cardiovascular Research.

Dr. Rabinovitch has received recognition in her field with numerous awards, the most recent being the 2004 Canadian Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) Distinguished Lecture and Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences and the 2004 American Heart Asociation Basic Research Prize. In 2003, the University of Kentucky awarded Dr Rabinovitch the Gill Heart Institute Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cardiovascular Research, and in 2002, she received the American Heart Association Paul Dudley White International Lectureship Award. Previous awards include the McGill University Cushing Memorial Award in Pediatrics (1971), a Research Achievement Award from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (1994), the Julius Comroe Lectureship from the American Physiological Society (1996), an Endowed Research Chair from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (1997), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Award of Merit (1999), and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2000).

Dr Rabinovitch is currently a Member of the Advisory Board of the Canadian Institute Health Research, Circulatory and Respiratory Institute; the Translational Research Advisory Committee, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Translation Research Advisory Committee, Doris Duke Foundation, the Medical Advisory Board of the Gairdner Foundation of Canada, and the Scientific Advisory Board, Primary Pulmonary Hypertension Association.

Research Program
Faculty Profile

Members of the Rabinovitch Laboratory:
Research Staff
Fellows and Students
Adminstrative Staff
Recent Alumni

 

Richard D. Bland, M.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine
email Dr. Bland

Dr Bland is a graduate of Phillips Academy Andover (1958), Yale University (BA, 1962) and Boston University School of Medicine (MD, 1966). He completed an internship and residency in Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD (1966-69), followed by a 3-year stint as a US Army staff pediatrician and Chief of Newborn Medicine at Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii (1969-1972). During his military service, Dr Bland did several clinical studies that led to 4 published papers, one of which was a solo-authored paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. He twice received the Ogden C Bruton Award for research on the role of plasma proteins in neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. Dr Bland did a postdoctoral fellowship in lung vascular biology and newborn medicine at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco (1973-74), where he became Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in 1975 and advanced to Professor of Pediatrics in 1984. An Established Investigator of the American Heart Association (1979-84), he was appointed to the Senior Staff of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF in 1982. Dr Bland’s research has focused on lung fluid balance during development and on the pathogenesis and treatment of acute and chronic neonatal lung injury. He did a 1-year research sabbatical at Oxford University (1982-3), where in collaboration with Dr Richard Boyd he discovered that events associated with labor cause an increase in lung epithelial Na+,K+-ATPase activity, which provides the driving force for clearance of liquid from the lungs during and after birth. In 1989, Dr Bland moved from UCSF to the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he was Fields Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Lung Biology until 2002, when he relocated to Stanford University as Professor of Pediatrics in the Cardiopulmonary Research Program and the Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine. Dr Bland received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Boston University School of Medicine (1996) and recently was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Medicine from Uppsala University in Sweden (2004) for his research related to lung fluid balance during development and pulmonary edema in the pathogenesis of newborn lung disease.

Research Program
Faculty Profile

Members of the Bland Laboratory:
Students, Fellows and Research Staff

Adminstrative Staff

Recent Alumni

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Research Staff/Rabinovitch Laboratory:

Lingli Wang, M.D.
Research Associate
email Lingli

Dr. Lingli Wang joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in July 2003 as lab manager. Lingli received her M.D. degree from the Fourth Army Medical University in Xi’an, China. She completed her post-doctoral studies in the Stanford’s Department of Pediatrics in 1997. Lingli brings her 10 years of experience in life science research to the group. Her main responsibility is the maintenance and genotyping of the transgenic mouse lines produced and used in the different research projects.




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Fellows and Students/Rabinovitch Laboratory:

 

Cristina Alvira, M.D.
Pediatric Critical Care Fellow, Stanford University
email Cristina

Dr. Cristina Alvira joined Dr. Rabinovitch/Dr. Bland's group in 2003. Dr. Alvira graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine with a degree of Doctor of Medicine. She is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. Cristina and recently completed her Residency in Pediatrics at Stanford University, and is currently pursuing a Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship at Stanford University.

Dr. Alvira's research focuses on maturational differences in nuclear factor kappa B activation in murine lung in response to systemic lipopolysaccharide.

 

 

Vinicio A. de Jesus Perez, M.D.
Post-doctoral fellow
Vinicioemail Vinicio

Dr. Vinicio A. de Jesus Perez was born and raised in Puerto Rico where he completed a BS in Biology in 1996 and obtained his MD at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences campus in 2000. He then moved to Boston where he completed a three year residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. After the end of his residency in 2003, he continued subspecialty training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver; it was during this time that Vinicio developed an interest in pulmonary hypertension and decided to pursue a career in basic science research. On July 2004 he transfered to Stanford University where he continues his training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. In January 2005, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch to pursue his interest in pulmonary hypertension research.

Vinicio's current research project focuses on the role of the wnt signaling pathway
in the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension and the potential role that apolipoprotein E may have in affecting the activity of this pathway and the course of the disease. The final goal will be to establish a role for wnt signaling in the development of pulmonary hypertension and its relationship to other established disease pathways such as BMP.

 

Yu-Mee Kim, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral fellow Yumee Kim
email Yu-Mee

Dr. Yu-Mee Kim graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering (Molecular Toxicology) in 2006. In 2001, she graduated from the Ewha women’s University, Seoul, Korea with degrees of BSc and MSc in Environmental Sciences and Engineering (Environmental Health Science). Dr. Kim was a recipient of a DAAD scholarship (German Academic Exchange Service, 2000), a Society of Toxicology/Inhalation Specialty Section Student Award (2006) and a North Carolina Society of Toxicology Student Award (2006).

Currently, Dr. Kim investigating the mechanisms regulating gamma herpes virus-induced pulmonary hypertension including the role of T cells, elastin peptide and microRNA in this pathogenesis.
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Tero-Pekka Alastalo, MD, PhD
Tero-Pekka AlastalosPost-doctoral Fellow
email Tero-Pekka

Dr. Tero-Pekka Alastalo joined the Rabinovitch lab in April 2007. Born and raised in Finland, he graduated from the University of Turku (http://www.utu.fi/en/) in 2001, with an MD/PhD degree.  His PhD research, conducted with Prof. Lea Sistonen in the Turku Centre for Biotechnology (http://www.btk.fi/index.php?id=1261), focussed on the transcriptional regulation of heat shock response.  Upon graduation, Dr Alastalo began his specialization in Pediatrics in the Turku University Hospital, and plans to sub-specialize in neonatal intensive care and cardiology.  He underwent additional training in Pediatric Cardiology at the University Hospital of Helsinki and the Sahlgrens University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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Hirofumi Sawada, MD, PhD
HirofumiPost-doctoral Fellow
email Hirofumi

Dr. Hirofumi Sawada joined Prof. Rabinovitch’s group in August 2007.  Dr. Sawada had graduated from Mie University School of Medicine, Mie, Japan, in 1993 with an MD degree and began his residency training in the department of Pediatrics, Mie University Hospital.  He completed three-year training in pediatric cardiology in the National Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan in 1996. He returned to Mie University in 2000, and joined the pulmonary hypertension research group.  Dr. Sawada obtained the PhD degree at Mie University Graduate School of Medicine in 2007 with a thesis titled:  “The role of a transcription factor NF-kB in monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension in rats.“  His zest for pursuing his research interests on pediatric cardiovascular disorders and pulmonary circulation brought him to Stanford.  Dr. Sawada’s research focused on hemodynamic and biochemical characterization of transgenic mice with conditional targeted deletion of transcription factor AML-1.  His post-doctoral training at Stanford is supported by the department of Pediatrics of Mie University School of Medicine and the Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery..

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Students, Fellows and Research Staff/Bland Laboratory:

Robert Ertsey, M.Sc.
Senior Research Associate
email Bob

Bob Ertsey joined Dr. Bland's group in 2004. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Biochemistry and from UC Santa Barbara with an M.Sc. in Genetics. From 1983 to 2004 he was a Research Associate in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UC San Francisco where he developed in vitro models of lung maturation and studied the effects of chemical, mechanical and apoptotic factors on fetal lung development. More recently, Bob published a study showing that poly(ADP)polymerase-1 [(PARP)-1], previously associated with apoptosis in lung, is maximally expressed in late gestation, and controls the rate of lung differentiation. He was the recipient of the Outstanding Performance Award of the Cardiovascular Research Institute (2000) and University Service Award (2004). Ertsey-cv

Original Publications – Robert Ertsey, M.Sc.

 

KakoliKakoli Parai, PhD.
Post-doctoral fellow, Bland Lab
email Kakoli

Dr. Kakoli Parai joined the Bland Lab in January 2008. She graduated with a B.S. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Nagpur University, India and a Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Physiology & Pharmacology from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada in 2004. During her first postdoctoral study at Northwestern University she received NIH postdoctoral grant from NHLBI (2006-2008). She is currently investigating changes in blood vessel expression following long-term mechanical ventilation in newborn mice.
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Anjali Dixit
Undergraduate Student, Bland Lab
email Anjali

Anjali Dixit joined Dr. Bland’s group in September 2004. Currently, Anjali is attending Stanford University as an undergraduate student, and she plans on double majoring in Biological Sciences/Linguistics.
Anjali’s research focuses on elastin fiber in lungs of newborn mice, and she is especially interested in whether the distribution of elastin in the lungs correlates to ventilation and neonatal chronic lung disease. When she’s not at the lab, Anjali enjoys yoga, practicing viola with the Stanford Chamber Music Program, and learning how to play mah-jong and wei-qi.

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Administrative Staff:

Michelle's picture

Michelle Fox
Administrative Associate to Drs. Marlene Rabinovitch and Richard Bland
(650) 723-8239 - Office Phone
(650) 723-6700 - Facsimile
email Michelle

Michelle joined the Dr Rabinovitch/Bland group as an Administrative Associate in September 2004. She received a BA in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1995. Immediately after graduating, Michelle entered the Veterinary field as an Assistant and continued to learn and received her Registered Veterinary Technician license in 2001. Prior to working at Stanford, she was the head nurse at Peninsula Equine Medical Center in Menlo Park where her duties included everything from front office work to running anesthesia on 1000+ lb horses. She continues to be a part of their surgery team one day a week and also works one Saturday a month at a small animal hospital in Menlo Park.

In addition to her love and career with animals, Michelle also enjoys being part of a team. Her nine years in the veterinary field has made her proficient at working with doctors, students and staff members. Her degree and background in the medical field are useful tools to bring to the table. She prides herself on being proactive, organized and having a positive attitude. When Michelle is not at work, she is either playing with her dogs, riding her horse, scrapbooking or sailing into the sunset with her husband on their 27 foot Catalina.

Michal Bental Roof, Ph.D.
Academic and Research Program Officer
(650) 724-9589 - Office Phone
(650) 723-6700 – Facsimile
email Michal

Dr. Michal Bental Roof joined Dr Rabinovitch/Bland group as Academic and Research Program Officer in September 2002. Michal holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry (with distinction) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. Degrees in the Life Sciences from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. She received a Weizmann Institute’s Special Distinction Award for M.Sc. students, and was a recipient of a Chaim Weizmann Post-Doctoral Fellowship.

Michal has worked in a diversity of fields within biology and basic biomedical research, as well as in chemistry. She brings to the group her experience from her previous position at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was Scientific Development Administrator of the Institute for Medicine and Engineering (IME). In that capacity, she worked with the Director on Institute initiatives and interdisciplinary special projects, including development of strategies to create proposals for unique funding opportunities from public and private sources, and the design and implementation of IME seminars, conferences and symposia to facilitate the integration of medical sciences and engineering.

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Recent Alumni:

Lucia M. Mokres, D.V.M., Post-doctoral fellow, Bland Lab, 2006-2008.
Current position: Product Consultant, Hantel, Freemont, CA
LuciaDr. Lucia Mokres joined Dr. Bland's group in June of 2005. She graduated from the University of California at San Diego in 1999 with a BS in Physiology and Neuroscience. In 2003,shegraduated cum laude from the Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences with a degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. She completed an internship in equine medicine and surgery at Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center (Los Olivos, CA) in 2004, followed by a yearlong position as lead intern at Peninsula Equine Medical and Surgical Group Practice in Menlo Park, CA. She is a member of the Society of Phi Zeta, the veterinary honor society. Her past research has included studies on oxidative stress in horses with large colon volvulus and colitis, and oxidative stress in critically ill equine neonates. Dr. Mokresi investigated changes in gene expression and lung morphology following long-term mechanical ventilation in newborn mice.

 

Nesrine El-Bizri, Ph.D. , Post-doctoral Fellow, Rabinovitch Lab, 2000-2007
Current position: Scientist, CV Therapeutics, Palo Alto, California

NesrineDr. Nesrine El-Bizri joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in Toronto in 2001, and relocated with her to Stanford in 2002. Dr. El-Bizri graduated with a B.S. in Biology and M.Sc. in Physiology from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Sherbrooke in Canada. She won the first prize Evelyn MacGlowyn Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (2001), and is supported by an American Heart Association (Pulmonary Hypertension Association) Post-doctoral fellowship (2001-2003). Dr. El-Bizri's research focused on the roles of Mts-1 and the BMP type II receptor in the pathobiology of pulmonary vascular disease.

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Christophe Guignabert, Ph.D.
,Post-doctoral fellow, Rabinovitch Lab, 2007
Current position: Post-doctoral fellow, INSERM Unit 841, Creteil, France

Christophe GuignabertDr. Christophe Guignabert joined Dr. Rabinovitch's group in 2006, after graduating from the University of Paris XII-Val de Marne, France. Dr. Guignabert's research focuses on the role the microtubule associated protein, light chain 3 (LC3) in pulmonary vascular disease. By interaction with the adenylate uridylate-rich element (ARE) sequences, LC3 regulates ARE-mRNAs translation of a wide variety of proteins that regulate cellular growth, migration, and differentiation. In addition, Christophe studied transgenic mice with conditional targeted deletion of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor type 1A and Peroxisome Proliferation-Activated Receptor (PPAR)-gamma, to assess the respective roles of these factors in the pathobiology of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

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Laura H. Rubinos, Visiting Student (Sarnoff Fellowship), Rabinovitch Lab, 2006-2007
Current position: Medical Student, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Laura RubinosLaura Rubinos joined Dr. Rabinovitch's group in August 2006 as a Sarnoff Cardiovascular Foundation Research Fellow. Laura was awarded the fellowship so that she could spend a year learning about research and developing her own project in the basic sciences. Laura's project focused on the interaction of PPAR-gamma with signaling pathways in the vasculature, and how its deletion specifically in smooth muscle cells influences the development of pulmonary hypertension. Laura used a mouse model do examine these effects and supplemented this data with in vitro studies from cells harvested from this model. This experience, coupled with her previous Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship, has definitely opened up an interest in research that Laura hopes to continue throughout her career.

Edda Spiekerkoetter, M.D., Post-doctoral fellow, Rabinovitch Lab, 2002-2007.
Current position: Fellow, Department of Medicine/Pulmonary Medicine, and the Wall Center for Pulmonary vascular Disease, Stanford University Edda's picture
Dr. Edda Spiekerkoetter joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in September 2002. Edda graduated from the University of Tuebingen, Germany, in 1988 with B.Sc. in Biology. She obtained her M.D. degree from Freiburg University Medical School 1995, and completed her Specialty as Internist at Hannover Medical School in 2002. Edda was a recipient of a Pulmonary Hypertension Association Postdoctoral Fellowship (2003-2005).
Edda's research included three projects:
1. A cell biology project on the function and signaling pathways of Mts1 in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells.
2. Animal studies, to produce a more severe phenotype of pulmonary hypertension in transgenic mice overexpressing Mts1, that are prone to pulmonary hypertension in that they develop plexiform lesions with age (eg, by an inflammatory stimulus).
3. Elucidating the role of stromal derived factor-1, shown to be elevated in hypoxia induced pulmonary hypertension, in respect to stem cell homing, differentiation, and repair after vascular injury.

 

Janine's picture

Janine M Bekker-Powers, Ph.D., Post-doctoral fellow, Rabinovitch lab, 2006-2007
Current position: Scientist, FivePrime, South San Francisco, CA
Dr. Janine Powers joined Dr. Rabinovitchâs group in 2006. She graduated from UC San Diego with a BS in Biology, and from UC Los Angeles with a Ph.D. from the Molecular Biology Institute where she was a recipient of the Cellular and Molecular Biology training grant. Dr. Powers research is focused on the microtubule associated protein, light chain 3 and its role in pulmonary vascular disease.


Yuri Knauer, M.D., Post-doctoral fellow, Bland lab, 2006-2007
Courrent position: Fellow, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Dr. Knauer is a fellow in the department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He joined Dr. Bland's group in the summer of 2006, following a a pediatric residency at Kaiser in Southern California.
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Feijie Zhang, M.D., Research Assistant, Bland Lab, 2005-2007
Dr. Feijie Zhang joined Dr. Bland’s group in September 2005 as a research assistant. Feijie received her M.D. degree from China. She studied in the field of pulmonary surfactant, lung injury and development at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center from 1997 to 2003.  Prior to joining Dr. Bland’s group, she spent two years at the New York University School of Medicine where she studied the effects of air pollution on airway epithelial cells.  Currently, Feijie is investigating the effects of mechanical ventilation on the lungs of newborn mice at the molecular and cellular levels.

 

Liwen Xu photo

Liwen Xu, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Bland lab, 2003-2006.
Current position: Research Associate, Dr. Felsher's lab, Divison of Oncology, Dept. of Medicine/Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine.Dr. Liwen Xu joined Dr. Bland’s group in 2003. Liwen received her Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the Biochemistry Dept. in Kansas State University. She was a recipient of an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (1998), and a Merck Graduate Research Award from Kansas State University (1995). While at the Bland lab, Liwen studied elastin metabolism and assembly in lungs of newborn sheep. The studies aim to understand the role of elastin metabolism and assembly during development of neonatal chronic lung disease, where abnormal abundance and distribution of elastin are observed.

 

Mitra Haddad, Administrative Associate for Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch, 2004-2006.Mitra's photo
Current position:
Administrative Assistant and Fellowship Coordinator, Dept of Pediatrics - Cardiology Division, Stanford University School of Medicine.
Mitra joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group as an Administrative Associate in September 2004. Mitra received her BA in Business Administration from Kingston University in Kingston, England where she lived in the 70’s. She brings with her many years of experience in customer service excellence and successfully operating a resourceful, productive and positive work environment. Mitra has been in the educational publishing industry since 1984 working for publishers such as Silver Burdett Ginn, Mimosa publishing and Scholastic Education in a variety of positions such as marketing/administrative coordinator, customer support/project manager and regional office manager. Her respect for and belief in the education industry brings her to Stanford.

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Gordon cannGordon Cann, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Rabinovitch Lab, 2002-2006.
Dr. Gordon Cann joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in 2002. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Molecular Biology, and from UC Santa Barbara with a PhD in Developmental Neurobiology. He completed his post-doctoral studies at Stanford University. Dr. Cann’s research focuses on the role microtubule associated protein, light chain 3, plays during mouse development. Currently, null allels of light chain 3 are being constructed to test the hypothesis that light chain 3 regulates neural crest cell migration. Neural crest cell and explant culture models are also being used to address the role of light chain 3 in neural crest cell migration.

 

 

 

Niru Deshpande

Nirupama Deshpande , Ph.D., Post-doctoral Fellow, Rabinovitch Lab 2004-2006.
Dr. Nirupama Deshpande joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in 2004. She graduated from the National Centre for Biological Research, TIFR Bangalore, India with a MS in Molecular Biology, and obtained her PhD in Drosophila Neurobiology from the University of Mainz, Germany. In her present position, Dr. Deshpande is working on the role of microtubule associated protein, light chain 3 (LC3), in mouse development. It has been hypothesized that LC3 plays a role in neural crest cell migration/differentiation. To test this hypothesis, she worked on developing a system for stable siRNA transfections in cell culture.

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Shu Jiang, M.D., Ph.D., Research Assistant, Bland Lab, 2005-2006
Current position: Dept of Surgery - Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, StanfordShu's picture
Dr. Shu Jiang joined Dr. Bland's group in September 2005. Dr. Jiang graduated from Mongolia Medical College in China with a medical degree and completed residency training in ENT followed by 2 years as a physician in charge. In 2002, she obtained her Ph.D from Jilin University in China, and completed her postdoctoral training in Cell Biology with Dr. Brian Storrie at Virginia Tech and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2002-2005. Dr. Jiang worked on the mechanical ventilation model in newborn mice and studies the changes in lung pathology of newborn mice following the ventilation.

 

Lihua Ying, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Rabinovitch Lab, 2002-2006
Current position: Department of Pediatrics - Nephrology, Stanford
Dr. Lihua Ying graduated from The University of Sydney with a Ph.D. in Molecular Lihua Ying photoiology in 1996. She had her postdoctoral training in Molecular Genetics with Dr Val Sheffield at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in The University of Iowa in 1997-2000. Dr. Ying was a recipient of an Australia National Heart Foundation Award (1993-1995) anda Young Investigator Award from the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of Australia (1996). T the University of Iowa, she was a Winner of Excellent Graduate Student Research (1996) and Excellent Postdoctoral Research (1999). In the Rabinovitch lab, Dr. Ying studied the mechanisms regulating interaction between LC3 and fibronectin mRNA, as well as other mRNAs which may influence tumor growth and invasion. Specifically, she investigates the involvement of LC3, a microtubule-associated protein, in the regulation of fibronectin translation. LC3 regulates mRNA transcription through interaction between an arginine-rich element (ARE) in LC3 and a sequence (UUAUUUAU) in the 3’UTR of Fibronectin mRNA.

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Georg Hansmann, M.D., Post-doctoral Fellow, Rabinovitch lab, 2004-06
Current position: Clinical Fellow, UCSF School of Medicine.
Georg joined Dr. Rabinovitch's group in April 2004. He graduated from Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany, in 1999 with a M.D. degree, and completed the United States Medical Licensing Examination in 2001. Georg Hansmann photo From 2000-2004 he has pursued clinical training, with emphasis on Neonatology, Pediatric Cardiology and Critical Care Medicine, at the Charit é University Hospital, Berlin, at the German Heart Center and at the Technical University, both in Munich. Georg performed cardiovascular research in the Department of Pharmacology in Freiburg (1995-1997), and at the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin (2000-2001). His M.D. thesis was rated “summa cum laude” and awarded him the Fleckenstein Prize for Junior Researchers in 1999. He is a recipient of an American Heart Association/Pulmonary Hypertension Association Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (2004-2006), Dr. Hansmann was awarded the 2006 AHA Cournand & Comroe Young Investigator Prize in Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care for studies performed while in the Rabinovitch lab.
Georg’s research focused on three projects:
1. Clinically relevant links between insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and pulmonary arterial hypertension, i.e. BMP-Receptor II, PPAR-gamma and Apolipoprotein E (Apo E) pathways, and their crosstalks with PDGF-BB and Wnt signaling, in human pulmonary artery cells and related transgenic mouse models.
2. Hemodynamic and biochemical characterization of transgenic mice under certain stimuli: Potential models for pulmonary arterial hypertension (e.g. Apo E knock out mice).
3. Intranuclear shuttling and activation of transcription factors (e.g. AML1), related cell signaling and transactivation of growth-regulating genes in human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells in which expression of BMP-Receptor II is suppressed (shRNAi pLenti 6).

Lisa Chyi , M.D., Post-doctoral fellow, Rabinovitch Lab, 2005
Current position: NeonatologyFellow, Stanford University.

Dr. Lisa Chyi joined Dr. Rabinovitch's group in 2005. She graduated from Ohio State University with a B.S. in Molecular Genetics and a Doctor of Medicine degree. She is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. Lisa completed her residency in Pediatrics at Northwestern University Children's Memorial Hospital. Her residency project regarding school-age outcomes of mildly premature infants was selected as a platform presentation at both the Society for Developmental Pediatrics and Pediatric Academic Society's national meetings.

Stefan Schellong, Visiting Researcher, Rabinovitch Lab, 2005 Stefan Schellong's photo
Current position: Medical Student
, Heidelberg Medical School, Germany
Stefan joined our lab in September 2005 as a visiting researcher. After having studied business administration in Mannheim, Germany, including semesters in Cambridge and Shanghai, he received a diploma in business administration in 2002. He then enrolled as a medical student in Heidelberg Medical School, Germany. During his time in our lab, Stefan is workng on his doctoral thesis concerning the role of the transcription factor PPARgamma in endothelial and smooth muscle cells and its impact on pulmonary vascular disease. His doctoral thesis is supported by Boehringer Ingelheim Funds, Germany.

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Roham Zamanian, M.D., Post-doctoral fellow, Rabinovitch Group, 2005
Current position: Instructor, Department of Medicine - Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Stanford

Roham graduated from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in 1994 with aB.S. (honors) in biological Sciences. Before entering medical school in 1995, Roham concluded his research in cellular and developmental biology on neural crest migration with Dr. Marianne Bronner-Fraser. After receiving his M.D. degree in 1999 from UCI College of Medicine, Roham completed a succesful residency and board certification in internal medicine at UCI Medical Center. During his senior resident year and through his first year offellowship in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at UCI Medical Center, Roham's research project focused on measurement of real time continuous airways resistance in intubated patients in the intensive care unit. After transferring to Stanford University Medical Center in 2004, Roham continued his fellowship in Pulmonary & Critical Care with a focus on pulmonary hypertension. He is currently the E-Bay pulmonary vascular fellow at Stanford through the Vera Moulton Wall Center.

Roham's current research project focuses on evaluating the role and expression of the Mts1 in patients with severe pulmonary hypertension. Zamanian-cv

 


Berit Jacobson
, Research Assistant, Bland Lab, 2003-2005
Cureently Graduate Student, University of Washington, Seattle

Berit Jacobson joined Dr. Bland's group as a research assistant in 2003. Berit graduated in 2002 from The University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology and Cognitive Science. Berit investigated changes in gene expression due to prolonged lung stretch in newborn mice, and set up the systems used in the lab for ventilating newborn mice.

 

Mychi Nguyen, Visiting Researcher, Dr. Rabinovitch's group, Summer 2005
Currently Medical Student, Drexel University College of Medicine.
Mychi joined our lab in September 2005 as a visiting researcher. Her research at Stanford is supported by the American Pediatric Society & Society for Pediatric Research and a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Mychi's photoShe has a prior research background at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research as a neuroscience researcher studying the safety and efficacy of nicotinamide in traumatic brain injury. In addition, she has done research on thymosin beta 4 at the National Institutes of Health. She graduated with honors from the Pennsylvania State University in 2002 and is currently a 4th year medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA. During her time in our lab, Mychi is working on developing a pulmonary artery organ culture model of pulmonary vascular occlusive disease triggered by an infection with gamma murine Herpes Virus-68 in mice that overexpress Mts1/S100A4.

 

Eliana Martinez, M.D., Post-doctoral Fellow, Rabinovitch Lab, 2004-05
Currently in a research position in Germany.Eliana Martinez
Dr. Eliana Martinez joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in February 2004. Eliana graduated from the University of Antioquia, Colombia, in 1999 with a degree of Doctor in Medicine and Surgery. Eliana’s research focused on the role of bone morphogenetic protein receptor II (BMP-RII) mutations in the pathobiology ofpulmonary vascular disease. Specifically, she is investigating how the knock down of BMP-RII influences endothelial and smooth muscle cell differentiation from embryonic stem cells, and genomic and functional profile with respect to proliferation, migration and susceptibility to apoptosis. Eliana was also involved in a Translational Medicine project in which she is performing confocal microscopy to elucidate the role of endothelial cell precursors in reestablishing the tumor vasculature following radiation.

 

 

Sandra Merklinger, C.N.S./N.P., M.N., Ph.D., Ph.D. Candidate, Rabinovitch Lab, 2000-2004
Current position: Cardiovascular Research, Hospital for Sick Children, and the University of Toronto.
Sandra Merklinger graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, conducting her research at Stanford University. Sandra joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in Toronto in 2000 and came to Stanford in the summer of 2002. Sandra received a Honours B.Sc. in Nursing and a Master of Nursing (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program) from the University of Toronto in Canada. Prior to her arrival at Stanford, Sandra was a Clinical Nurse Specialist/Nurse Practitioner in the Cardiac Program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Sandra received numerous Graduate student awards, including University of Toronto Fellowships (1998, 2002), Ontario Graduate Studentship in Science and Technology (2000, 2001), Hospital for Sick Children’s Alma Rae Fellowes Scholarships (1999, 2000), Heart and Stroke Foundation Fellowship (1999), Lorne Phoenix Graduate Award of the Heart and Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence in Toronto (2000), and an Institute of Medical Science/University of Toronto Merit Award (2000). She is a Member of Sigma Theta Tau, the International Nursing Honour Society. Sandra’s research focused on the Role of avb3 Integrin and Matrix Metalloproteinase Antagonists in the Regression of Pulmonary Vascular Disease.

 

 

Allan Lawrie, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow, Rabinovitch Lab, 2002-2004
Current Position: Russell Fellow, Cardiovascular Research Unit , University of Sheffield, UK

Dr. Allan Lawrie joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in 2002. Allan graduated from Napier University (Edinburgh, Scotland) in 1996 with a BSc (Hon) and The University of Sheffield (Sheffield, England) in 2001 with a PhD. He is a recipient of Stanford University School of Medicine Deans Fellowship award for post-doctoral scientists (2003-2004). Allan’s research focuses on the investigation into the role of serotonin in the production and release of Mts1 from pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. Mts1 is a member of the S100 family of proteins and was originally found to be important in metastasis of breast cancer.

 

 

 

Eric Shinwell, M.D., Visiting Researcher, Bland Lab, summer 2004

Dr. Eric Shinwell is this year's recipient of the Stanford Israeli Visiting Professorship. He is Director of Neonatology at Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot and the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. He joined Dr. Bland's laboratory in May, 2004. Dr. Shinwell has conducted randomized clinical trials of therapeutic interventions in neonatal lung disease and has recently identified the relationship between postnatal steroid therapy and cerebral palsy. He is currently working on the relationship between various forms of ventilation in a neonatal mouse model on the expression of genes controlling angiogenesis and alveolarization.

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