Director
Team
Latha Palaniappan, MD, MS
Latha Palaniappan MD, MS, is an internist and clinical researcher. Her work has focused on the study of different racial/ethnic populations in the areas of obesity, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular risk. Palaniappan seeks to address the gap in knowledge of health in Asian subgroups and other understudied racial/ethnic minorities (The Pan Asian Cohort Study - PACS, 5R01DK081371). During her time at Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), she led the organization-wide initiative to collect patient race/ethnicity and language information, enabling PAMF researchers to conduct disparities research in the clinical setting. In collaboration with PAMF, her most recent work examines the clinical effectiveness of structured physical activity programs for diabetes management (Initiate and Maintain Physical Activity in Clinics - IMPACT, 5R18DK096394), as well as best exercise regimens for normal-weight diabetics (Strength Training Regimen for Normal Weight Diabetics - STRONG-D, 2R01DK081371). She is also co-principal investigator on the CAUSES (5R01MD007012) study, which examines mortality and socioeconomic differences between diverse Asian Subgroups in the U.S. She is currently working on implementation of evidence based genetic and pharmacogenetic testing in Primary Care Clinics as the Scientific Director of Precision Genomics and Pharmacogenomics in Primary Care.
Stanford Biobank
Founded in 2018 by Mark Cullen, MD and Rohit Gupta, the Stanford Biobank is providing the resources and tools to academic biobanks. In partnership with the Precision Health Biobank, the two programs create advanced, standardized biospecimen procurement pipeline that enables both patient engagement with research and sample utilization by scientists.
Staff Alumni
Alumni
Katie Hastings was the Project Manager and the main point-of-contact for Stanford Precision Health Biobank before moving onto other clinical work. Katie graduated from Kalamazoo College with a dual BA degree in Biology and Spanish, and from the University of Southern California with a Master's in Public Health, with a concentration in Global Health. During her time at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute with Dr. Palaniappan (2012-2014), she primarily worked as a study coordinator doing phlebotomy and Spanish medical interpretation on a multi-site international clinical trial. Over the years, Katie gravitated toward social epidemiology and health disparities research with a particular interest in disaggregate health reporting of heterogeneous racial/ethnic groups, immigrant health, and mental health disparities and access to services and care.
Chelsea Harris was a recruiter for Stanford Precision Health Biobank before moving on to pursue her medical degree at Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina. She was originally from Sacramento, but she moved to the Bay Area to attend Stanford University as an undergraduate student to earn her BA in Human Biology. Chelsea's favorite part of Stanford Precision Health Biobank was interacting with the patients on a daily basis. She is very thrilled for the next chapter in her life!
Audrey Schlachter leads the data entry for Stanford Precision Health Biobank participants and consents participants in SCICD clinics. She previously managed all data for Cascade Screening for Awareness and Detection of Familial Hypercholesterolemia (CASCADE FH) and is enjoying the switch to a broad scope of patients in various clinics. When not working on Stanford Precision Health Biobank, she can be found tinkering with StudyTrax, which is a clinical research database for tracking all patients seen in clinic.
Bethany Fay is graduate from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.S. in Human Biology. She has been a recruiter for Stanford Precision Health Biobank at the Stanford Pain Management Clinic for about 2 years. She recently took on the Project Manager position for GenePool. She plans to pursue a Masters of Science in Nursing in order to one day become a Nurse Practitioner. She is very interested in genetic research and has enjoyed her time working closely with both the doctors and the clinic staff.
Jyoti Agarwal obtained her Master's in Biotechnology from India and is certified in clinical trial and design management. She recently joined Stanford Precision Health Biobank at Stanford as a Research Coordinator. She is really excited to work on the Stanford Precision Health Biobank project and looking forward to working with patients and doctors.