People
Principal Investigators
Dr. Rabinovitch joined Stanford University in the summer of 2002 as the Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, and staff scientist at 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 2008 American Thoracic Society Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishment. She is the recipient of the 2006 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist Award, and in 2005 she was the The American Heart Association Dickinson Richards Lecturer. Previous awards include the 2004 Canadian Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) Distinguished Lecture and Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences; the 2004 AHA Basic Research Prize; the University of Kentucky Gill Heart Institute Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cardiovascular Research (2003); the AHA Paul Dudley White International Lectureship Award (2002); 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); the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2000), and the McGill University Cushing Memorial Award in Pediatrics (1971). Dr. Rabinovitch is currently a Member of the NIH/NHLBI Scientific Advisory Council to the Director and the Executive Committee of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute. Dr. Rabinovitch is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the 4th World Congress of Pulmonary Circulation, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, the Pulmonary Circulation Council of the American Thoracic Society, and the Executive Council of the American Pediatric Society, and the She serves on the Advisory Committees of the MPI for Heart and Lung ResearchBoard of the Max Planck Society. Research
Program Members of the Rabinovitch Laboratory:
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 Members of the Bland Laboratory: Research Staff/Rabinovitch Laboratory: Lingli
Wang, M.D.
Fellows and Students/Rabinovitch Laboratory:
Vinicio
A. de Jesus Perez, M.D.
Yu-Mee Kim, Ph.D.
Dr. Kim joined this cardiopulmonary research group to pursue her interest in diseases mediated by the interplay between genes and the environment. She is investigating the fragmentation of elastic laminae and development of neointimal pulmonary arterial (PA) lesions in pulmonary hypertension patients, and in a mouse model. Her postdoctoral research was supported by American Heart Association Western States Affiliation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2007-2009). Hirofumi Sawada, M.D., Ph.D. Edda Spiekerkoetter, M.D.
Dr. Spiekerkoetter received a B.Sc. from the University in Tuebingen, Germany in 1988, and her M.D. from the University of Freiburg in 1995, Germany. Following a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care at Hannover Medical School, Germany, she joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s lab (2002-06) as a postdoctoral fellow, funded by a fellowship award from the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (2003-05). Dr. Spiekerkoetter continued her clinical training with fellowships in Pulmonary and Critical Care (2007-08) and in Critical Care (2008-09) at the Stanford University Medical Center. She is Instructor of Medicine in the department of Pulmonary and Critical Care, and is an Attending Physician in Pulmonary Hypertension, the focus of her basic and translational research. Her current project is to develop an assay for screening FDA approved drugs and small molecules for their potential to induce BMPRII signaling. She is working closely with the High-throughput Bioscience Center at Stanford. She is also interested in micro RNA expression in pulmonary hypertension and the potential of microRNAs to regulate BMPRII expression. A third project investigates elafin and EGF-receptor induced regression of pulmonary artery occlusion in an organ culture system of lungs from patients transplanted for PAH. Ying-Ju Lai, Ph.D.
Ying-Ju's research focuses on the regulation of elastin production and assembly in pulmonary hypertension. Her major research goal is to determine whether loss of signalling through the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor II impairs deposition of elastin, and whether increased Jagged 1 protein can rescue the abnormal phenotype of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells by allowing both production and assembly of elastin in response to the ligand BMP-4.
Molong Li joined the lab in 2008 whilst pursuing a bachelor of science degree in Biomedical Computation (expected 2010) as a Stanford undergraduate. He worked closely with Dr. Tero-Pekka Alastalo studying downstream targets of BMPRII and their involvement in pulmonary arterial hypertension. After graduation he plans to attend medical school.
Erica Swesey Savig, M.Arch Erica Savig joined the lab in December of 2009. She is interested in developing visual computational tools to help reveal relationships between morphological cell behaviors, environmental factors (both chemical and mechanical) and functional cell processes. She hopes to use these techniques in the Rabinovitch Lab to identify links between environmentally-dependent vascular smooth muscle cell behaviors (cell-ECM and cell-cell interactions) and their production and organization of elastin fibers in the extracellular matrix. These findings will help provide answers to how smooth muscle cells could contribute to the repair of damaged elastin fibers in diseased pulmonary vessels. Erica received her Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, where she focused on the parametric design of generative structural and interactive systems based on biological behavioral models. She received her Bachelor of Science in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. She previously worked for LabStudio, a hybrid Architecture and Cell Biology research and design unit based both in the lab of Peter Lloyd Jones and the School of Design, at the University of Pennsylvania. At LabStudio, Erica visualized, quantified, and identified environmentally-dependent behaviors of vascular smooth muscle cells through space and time when exposed to diverse microenvironments. Her process strongly involved the design of visual computational techniques, also used as automated tools for analyzing cell behavior.
Students,
Fellows and Research Staff / Bland Laboratory: Robert
Ertsey, M.Sc.
Anne Hiigendorff, M.D.
Dr. Hilgendorff's thesis research investigated the effect of HMG-CoA
reductase inhibitors on the coagulation system in heart transplant
recipients in vitro and in vivo and pursued a study in pediatric
heart transplant recipients regarding the indicative effect of adhesion
molecule levels in rejection processes and transplant coronary artery
disease. During her Residency in Pediatrics and following Fellowship
in Neonatology she focused on acute and chronic pulmonary adaptation
in the term and preterm newborn infant. Through clinical studies
and experimental approaches she investigated the role of surfactant
proteins and further members of the innate immune system as well
as markers of the inflammatory response in the injured newborn lung.
As an investigator of the Giessen Research Center in Infectious Diseases,
part of the Human Genome Network, she studied preterm infants suffering
from early-onset sepsis and respiratory distress syndrome in genetic
association studies and non-hypothesis thriven approaches using micro-array
chip technology. Currently, Dr Hilgendorff is investigating changes
in gene expression and lung morphology following long-term mechanical
ventilation in transgenic and non-transgenic newborn mice.
Administrative Staff - Rabinovitch/ Bland Lab:
Michelle Fox 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.
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.
Recent Alumni Pursuing Research Careers: Tero-Pekka Alastalo, M.D., Ph.D.
Cristina
Alvira, M.D. Lucia
M. Mokres, D.V.M.
Back to top Laura H. Rubinos, B.S. Janine
M Bekker-Powers, Ph.D.
Nirupama
Deshpande , Ph.D. Georg
Hansmann, M.D. Stefan Schellong Roham
Zamanian, M.D. Back to top
Eliana
Martinez, M.D. Sandra
Merklinger, C.N.S./N.P., M.N., Ph.D. Allan
Lawrie, Ph.D. Eric
Shinwell, M.D. |
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Dr. Yu-Mee Kim graduated from the Ewha women’s University, Seoul, Korea with degrees of B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering (Environmental Health Science) in 2001. She continued her studies at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering (Molecular Toxicology) in 2006. Dr. Kim's Ph.D. thesis research, conducted at the UNC and the US Environmental Protection Agency, focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying proinflammatory responses of primary human bronchial epithelial cells after the exposure to air pollutants, including metals and nanocarbon particles. 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). 
Dr. Edda Spiekerkoetter rejoined our lab in September 2009 as a Scholar in the Stanford K12 Career Development Program in Genetics and Genomics of Pulmonary diseases.
Dr. Ying-Ju Lai joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in August 2009. Ying-Ju graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Justus Liebig in Giessen, Germany in 2009. Her Ph.D. research, conducted at the University of Giessen lung Center (2004-2009) focused on the prostanoid signaling in pulmonary arterial hypertension. She obtained her Master degree from National Taiwan University 2002, and In 2003-04 was an Associate Researcher at the Biomedical Engineering Centre of the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan, where she worked on the development of a drug delivery system for anti-lung cancer gene therapy. 
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.
Michal
Bental Roof, Ph.D.
Dr. Tero-Pekka Alastalo was a postdoctoral fellow in the Rabinovitch lab from 2007-2009. Born and raised in Finland, he graduated from the University of Turku (
Dr.
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.
Dr. Christophe Guignabert graduated 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.
Laura
Rubinos was awarded a Sarnoff
Cardiovascular Foundation Research Fellowship to 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.
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 investigated the role of microtubule associated protein, light chain 3 (LC3),
in mouse development. Niru worked on developing a system for stable siRNA
transfections in cell culture
Georg graduated from Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany, in 1999, and completed the United States Medical Licensing Examination in 2001. He has pursued clinical training, with emphasis on Neonatology, Pediatric Cardiology and Critical Care, at Charité University Medical Center, Berlin, at the German Heart Center/Technical University Munich, and at UC San Francisco (2000-2004, 2006-2008). Georg is board certified in Pediatrics (US, GER), Neonatology (GER) and Neonatal Emergency Medicine (GER). He performed cardiovascular research in the Department of Pharmacology in Freiburg (thesis: 1995-1999), and at the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin (PostDoc: 2000-2001). His thesis on vascular P2 receptors (“summa cum laude”) awarded him the Albrecht Fleckenstein Prize in 1999. Georg is a recipient of an AHA/PHA Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award (2004-2006). He was awarded the 2006 AHA Cournand & Comroe Young Investigator Prize in Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care for studies performed while in the Rabinovitch lab. Georg has been enrolled in the Physician Scientist Track at UCSF Children’s Hospital (2006-2008), and continued to work with Marlene Rabinovitch and colleagues on PAH research projects, for which he received the SPR Research Award in 2008 and a NIH Keystone Scholarship in 2009.
Georg’s research focused on 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. 
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.
Dr. Allan Lawrie 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 was a recipient
of Stanford University School of Medicine Dean's Fellowship award for
post-doctoral scientists (2003-04). Allan’s research focused
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.