2022 DRIVE Summer Research Program
Congratulations to the 2022 cohort of the DRIVE in Research Pathway program!
23 Stanford undergraduate students were selected and matched individually with an MCHRI faculty mentor.
Explore the topics below to learn more about the DRIVE 2022 cohort and unique learning opportunities
DRIVE 2022 Student Research and Faculty Matches
Students were paired with faculty advisors and conducted research projects throughout the Summer. Faculty provided guidance and mentorship as the sophomore students worked on maternal and child health related projects.
DRIVE Student: Eyerusalem Alemu
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Clea Sarnquist, Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases)
Project Title: HIV, Violence, and Mental Health Challenges: Triple threats to adolescent girls in Western Kenya
DRIVE Student: Pedro Ambriz
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Justin Annes, Associate Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology)
Project Title: Developing A Regenerative Therapeutic for Diabetes
DRIVE Student: Aiyana Austin
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Gary Darmstadt, Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatology)
Project Title: Emollient therapy for improved survival and growth of very low birth weight infants in Zimbabwe
DRIVE Student: Jessica Balbin
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hayley Gans, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases)
Project Title: Immune response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine in immunocompromised pediatric patients
DRIVE Student: Emelin Cabrera
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anisha Patel, Associate Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics)
Project Title: Examining Communication and Marketing Strategies to Reduce Food Insecurity among Latino Children in California's San Joaquin Valley
DRIVE Student: Mario Gonzalez Ramirez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Egan, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases)
Project Title: Host-pathogen interactions in malaria: Uncovering the function of an essential erythrocyte host factor
DRIVE Student: Tracy Ha
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Virginia Winn, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Project Title: Mutating Siglec-6 in Trophoblast to Understand its Role in Preeclampsia Pathogenesis
DRIVE Student: Clarissa Jaime Gonzalez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Henry Lee, Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatology)
Project Title: Conversation Circles
DRIVE Student: Kelly Huang
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sean Wu, Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine)
Project Title: Understanding the mechanism of heart defect in single ventricle congenital heart disease
DRIVE Student: Fatima Lopez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, Professor of Pediatrics (Adolescent Medicine)
Project Title: Understanding and Preventing Adolescent and Young Adult Vaping
DRIVE Student: Jadess Lowrey
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Thomas Robinson, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine
Project Title: Wise Social Psychological Interventions to Improve Outcomes of Behavioral Weight Control in Children with Obesity
DRIVE Student: Geana Marte
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anca Pasca, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatal and Developmental Medicine)
Project Title: Studying the effects of hypoxia on human brain development using organoids derived from stem cells
DRIVE Student: Shriti Parajuli
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anoop Rao, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatal and Developmental Medicine)
Project Title: Physiological Waveform Variability in patients with and without hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) – Preliminary pipeline for Heart Rate Variability data analysis
DRIVE Student: Amanda Rodriguez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Thomas Robinson, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine
Project Title: Discovering Adolescents' Smartphone Food Environments
DRIVE Student: Tania Rojas
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Tulio Valdez, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology
Project Title: Diagnosis and treatment of pediatric infections with bacterial probes
DRIVE Student: Chanpichiny Ros
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ruth Lathi, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Project Title: NATPro Study: Improving Pregnancy Outcomes for Frozen Embryo Transfer
DRIVE Student: Belem Salgado
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jiangbin Ye, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology
Project Title: Targeting the pediatric cancer epigenome with metabolic therapy
DRIVE Student: Diana Sanchez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dennis Wall, Pediatrics and Biomedical Data Science
Project Title: AI for child health and education
DRIVE Student: Tuananh Tran
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lee Sanders, Associate Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics)
Project Title: Effective Community-based Policies and Programs to advance Child Health Equity: Focus on Latino Youth
DRIVE Student: Sydney Vaughn
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dennis Wall, Professor of Pediatrics (Systems Medicine) and Biomedical Data Science
Project Title: AI for child health and education
DRIVE Student: Jordan Vedelli
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kanwaljeet (Sunny) Anand, Professor of Pediatrics (Pediatric Critical Care)
Project Title: Biomarkers for Risk and Resilience in Preschool Children
DRIVE Student: Olivia Viruet Quintero
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Virginia Winn, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Project Title: The Effects of Aneuploidy on Human Trophoblast Stem-like Cell Differentiation
DRIVE Student: Audrey Xu
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kara Meister Clinical Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology
Project Title: Cell Free DNA Sequencing for the Diagnosis of Head & Neck Infections in Children
DRIVE 2022 Poster Symposium
The DRIVE 2022 Program culminated in a Student Poster Symposium that showcased the work and accomplishments of the DRIVE students. Faculty mentors and their research team members, and the School of Medicine community was invited to attend.
Each student presented their research poster and answered questions from attendees, and shared their reflection on the summer program. Faculty mentors also shared reflections on their summer experience .
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DRIVE 2022 Lunch and Learns
Weekly Lunch and Learns events were held with investigators in maternal and child health fields, where speakers shared their own career journey and a talk on their research interests. The Lunch & Learn events provided DRIVE students an opportunity to learn and discuss initiatives and challenges in the field with a wide variety of experts, and discover the diversity of career pathways in academic medicine and biomedical research.
Dr. Fernando Mendoza
Associate Dean of Minority Advising and Programs, and Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics)
Dr. Tom Collins
Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Cardiology)
Dr. Florette K Gray Hazard
Associate Professor of Pathology and of Pediatrics
Dr. Tulio Valdez
Associate Professor of Otolaryngology (Head & Neck Surgery)
Dr. Bonnie Maldonado
Senior Associate Dean, Faculty Development and Diversity, Professor of Global Health and Infectious Diseases, and of Epidemiology and Population Health, and of Pediatrics
Dr. Claudia Algaze
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Cardiology and General Pediatrics)
Dr. Bereketeab Haileselassie
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Critical Care)
Dr. Ha Tran
Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Nephrology)
Dr. Anisha Patel
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics)
DRIVE 2022 Seminars
Focused seminars throughout the summer equiped mentees with the foundational research tools and knowledge. From how to create scientific posters to how to apply for funding for their future research needs, these seminars aimed to prepare the participating students for fruitful research careers.
Quick-Start Literature Search Toolkit
Christopher Stave MLS
GME/Clinical Education Librarian, Lane Medical Library
Preparing a Scientific Poster
Dr. Jenny Lee
Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Clinical Science Research, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism
Next steps in your research career, and how to apply for funding
Dr. Justin Crest
Research Development Strategist, Department of Pediatrics
