As an academic medical center with close ties to Stanford University and Silicon Valley, Stanford Medicine merges research with health-care expertise to drive innovation. True to the entrepreneurial ethos of the valley, our culture encourages agile collaboration across disciplines for creative solutions and original thinking.

MedScholars

The Stanford Medical Scholars Program provides financial support for medical student research. To be eligible, students must propose a biomedical research project in an academic setting under the direction of a Stanford faculty member. Research sponsored by individuals outside the Stanford community also may be supported with joint oversight by Stanford faculty.  


Sample Student Projects:

  • Building the Human Disease "Etiome" 
  • Assessing access to prenatal HIV screening in Salvador, Brazil
  • A whole-cell lymphoma vaccine to boost anti-tumor immunity induced by adoptive cell transfer immunotherapy
  • See more projects

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Stanford Medicine Institutes

The greatest challenges to human health—and the solutions to them—lie at the intersection of traditionally distinct fields. With access to the vast resources of Stanford University, the Stanford Medicine Institutes enable close interactions between physicians and scientists in different specialties

 


Bio-X Program

Stanford Bio-X is an interdisciplinary program that brings together experts from medicine, engineering and other scientific disciplines to solve complex biological and medical issues. 


d.school

The d.school is a hub for innovators at Stanford. Students and faculty in engineering, medicine, business, law, the humanities, sciences, and education find their way here to take on the world’s messy problems together.


A Legacy of Innovation

Stanford Medicine's unrivaled atmosphere of breakthrough thinking has fueled a long history of clinical and research achievements.


  1. First synthesis of biologically active DNA in test tube

    Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg creates a strand of biologically active DNA, paving the way for studies of genetics.

  2. First adult human heart transplant in the United States

    Norman Shumway successfully transplants a heart into 54-year-old steelworker Mike Kasperak, who survives for 14 days.

     

  3. First expression of a foreign gene implanted in bacteria by recombinant DNA methods

    Geneticist Stanley Cohen transfers a foreign gene into bacterial cells, which then express the gene.

  4. First successful human combined heart/lung transplant in the world (fourth attempted worldwide)

    Mary Gohlke receives the world's first combined heart and lung transplant in a landmark operation led by surgeon Bruce Reitz.

     

  5. Isolation of a gene coding for part of the T-cell receptor, a key to the immune system’s function

    Immunologist Mark Davis characterizes the T-cell receptor, believed to regulate the body's response to infectious agents and cancerous diseases.

    More about Dr. Mark Davis (PDF)

  6. Isolation of pure hematopoietic stem cells from mice

    Pathologist Irving Weissman isolates a rare mouse cell, known as the hematopoetic stem cell, which gives rise to all the cells of the blood and immune systems.

  7. First use of gene expression profiling to predict cancer outcomes

  8. Application and expansion of optogenetics, a technique to control brain cell activity with light

    Bioengineer Karl Deisseroth and his team develop a technique known as optogenetics that allows them to genetically alter brain cell activity in mice with light.

    Read full story

     

Eight school faculty have won a Nobel prize in the last six decades

Faculty Excellence

By recruiting highly distinguished faculty, Stanford Medicine has achieved pre-eminence far beyond its size. Students work alongside leading experts in an academic community that welcomes them as colleagues and supports them in their development. 

Diversity of Perspectives

Our community of scholarship thrives on individuals of widely different backgrounds and interests.