Research
Basic Science
Visit our basic science page to learn more about our ongoing research.
Clinical and Translational Science
Visit our clinical and translational science page to learn more about our ongoing research.
Research Fellowship
Visit our research fellowship to learn more about our NIH funded opportunities for residents and postdoctoral fellows.
Funding
Visit our funding page to learn more about our grant opportunities and funding resources available to our researchers.
About Our Research
Anesthesiology has been undergoing major changes globally, expanding roles beyond the operating room in offering high quality personalized services in peri-operative health, pain management, critical care and other medical disciplines. Research has been a major factor underlining these changes and will continue to be an essential force driving the evolution of the specialty.
Stanford Anesthesia research includes a wide spectrum of programs in basic, translational, clinical, health service, and medical education areas. Project fields range from subcellular mechanisms of anesthesia, pain, and opioid addiction, tissue/organ injury, novel anesthesia agents, techniques and devices, treatment effectiveness, epidemiology, patient safety, health economics and other areas. Interdisciplinary collaborations are increasingly a feature. Our department has been among the top five NIH funded anesthesia departments since 2011, with current external research grants and contracts totaling $17 million annually.
Stanford Anesthesia pays special attention to research training for the next generation of anesthesiologists and has established a research-training continuum bridging between medical student and faculty stages. We place special emphasis on supporting the residency-fellowship-junior faculty period. A key part of this support is the Fellowship in Anesthesia Research and Medicine (FARM) program and our two NIH supported T32 training grants.
In the Press
– ScopeA blood test to predict surgical complications?
Researchers create a blood test to predict a patient's risk for surgical site complications, such as infection.
– ScopeTracking the progression of liver disease in a dish
Stanford Medicine researchers are creating models of livers in a dish -- organoids -- to better understand liver disease.
– News CenterBlood test predicts recovery after hip-replacement surgery, study finds
A simple blood test that analyzes immune function can forecast how quickly a person undergoing hip replacement surgery will recover.
– News CenterStanford researchers identify blood markers that indicate labor is approaching
About three weeks before delivery, a pregnant woman’s body shifts into a pre-labor phase characterized by changes in immune, hormonal and blood-clotting signals.
– ScopePredicting premature birth in low-resource settings
A blood test that predicts if a baby will be born prematurely works well for pregnant women in developing countries, a Stanford-led study found.
– The Journal of PhysiologyAngiotensin receptor blockade mimics the effect of exercise on recovery after orthopaedic trauma by decreasing pain and improving muscle regeneration
The Tawfik Lab, in collaboration with the labs of Dr. David Clark and Dr. Thomas Rando, publishes a study on how a commonly used anti-hypertensive may reproduce the effects of exercise on muscle regeneration in The Journal of Physiology.
– News CenterStanford team separates therapeutic and addictive effects of party drug MDMA
The rave drug MDMA ('ecstasy') may have powerful therapeutic properties, and is currently in clinical trials to treat PTSD. It could also be prone to abuse. Using mouse models, a team of Stanford researchers has shown that the neural circuits for these effects can be separated, and may lead to safer therapy development.
– Wu Tsai Neurosciences InstituteResearchers enhance neuron recovery in rats after blood flow stalls
Stanford researchers blocked a molecule to help restore neurons in rats in which the flow of fresh blood to the brain was reduced. The approach could lead to new treatments for people who have suffered a stroke or cardiac arrest.
– ScopePredicting women at risk of preeclampsia before clinical symptoms - Scope
Stanford researchers are developing a blood test to predict preeclampsia, using new technology to survey changes in the immune system during pregnancy.
– Two from Stanford named 2019 Rita Allen Foundation ScholarsTwo from Stanford named 2019 Rita Allen Foundation Scholars | The Dish
The Rita Allen Foundation has named LAUREN O’CONNELL, assistant professor of biology, and VIVIANNE TAWFIK, assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, to its 2019 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars, celebrating 10 young leaders in the biomedical sciences whose research holds exceptional promise for revealing new pathways to advance human health.
– The VergeCan efforts to bottle MDMA’s magic transform psychiatry?
One researcher wants to find out how the drug works — to make other mental health treatments
– ScopeMake it stop: New frontiers in pain research offer hope - Scope
A Stanford anesthesiologist is working to understand why pain becomes agonizing and chronic by examining the role of cells known as microglia.
– Stanford MedicineOne doctor’s quest to turn pain off
A Stanford anesthesiologist is on a quest to help her patients escape chronic and debilitating pain.
– News CenterImmune profile two days after stroke predicts dementia a year later
Stanford researchers have found that transient changes in the numbers and activation levels of a handful of circulating immune cell types can predict the likelihood of dementia one year after a stroke.
Research News
- The autonomic nervous system was shown to control pain after limb fracture by controlling immune responses. These results suggest new ways to reduce chronic pain after surgery and injuries. Link to article
- One in five children report chronic pain or migraine. However, a new international review, including Stanford’s Dr. Lauren Heathcote and Dr. Elliot Krane, found very a serious lack of evidence for drug treatments in children with pain.
- Dr. Boris Heifets, Anesthesia, and Dr. Robert Malenka, Psychiatry, map research strategies to understand a new class of consciousness-altering drugs, including ketamine, MDMA and psilocybin. Link to article.
- Basic science research has made a breakthrough in anesthetic agent design by creating new agents that target specific neurotransmitter receptors to eliminate unwanted, life threating, side effects. See Cayla et al PNAS 2019.