Stanford Neuro-Immuno-Oncology Program Team

The Neuro-Immuno-Oncology Program is a collaborative effort to advance cellular therapy for aggressive cancers of the central nervous system. The program brings together leaders in neurology, oncology, and cellular therapy.

Leadership

Crystal Mackall, MD
Founding Director
Center for Cancer Cell Therapy


 

Michelle Monje, MD, PhD
Founding Director
Neuro-Immuno-Oncology

Associate Director
Center for Cancer Cell Therapy

Brian J. Scott, MD
Co-Director
Neuro-Immuno-Oncology


 

Members

PEDIATRICS CLINICAL CARE & RESEARCH

Neurology: Pediatric Neuro-Oncology

Cynthia Campen, MD
Michelle Monje, MD, PhD
Sonia Partap, MD, MS
Kun-Wei Song, MD
Paul Fisher, MD

Pediatrics: Hematology/Oncology

Catherine Aftandilian, MD
Jay Balagtas, MD
Kara Davis, DO
Tanja Gruber, MD
Jennifer Kamens, MD
Crystal Mackall, MD
Sneha Ramakrishna, MD
Katie Ryan, DO
Raya Saab, MD
Liora Schultz, MD

Pediatrics: Critical Care

Timothy Cornell, MD
Lindsey Rasmussen, MD

Neurosurgery: Pediatrics

Laura Prolo, MD, PhD

Stanford Children’s Health Advanced Practice Providers

May Casazza, NP
Divya Madhav, PA
Jen Moon, NP
Diana Poon, NP

Stanford Children’s Health Nurse Coordinators

Emily DeYager, RN
Ashley Jacobs, RN
Cristina Mendoza, RN

Stanford Children’s Health Social Work

Andi Levenson, MPH, MSW

Stanford Children’s Health Child Life

Joy Nicolas, MA

Stanford Cancer Institute - Clinical Trials Office

Christina Baggott, RN, PhD
Nicole Cassie Corwin, RN, DNP
Mariah Duncan
Michelle Fujimoto
Bryce Igawa
Jared Kwong
Amy Li
Liza Reichert

ADULT CLINICAL CARE & RESEARCH

Neurology: Neuro-Oncology

Michelle Monje, MD
Antonio Omuro, MD
David Rogawski, MD, PhD
Brian Scott, MD
Kun-Wei Song, MD

Neurology: Neurohospitalists

Kristin Galetta, MD
Brian Scott, MD

Neurology: Neurocritical Care

Zachary Threlkeld, MD

Neurosurgery

Gordon Li, MD
Michael Lim, MD

Blood and Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy

Saurabh Dahiya, MD
Crystal Mackall, MD
Wen-Kai Weng, MD

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Sheila Lahijani, MD

Stanford Health Care Advanced Practice Providers

Patti Jo Carruth, MS, RN
Liz Fox, MS, NP
Michelle Robinson, MS, NP
Theodora Kalatzi, MS, CNS
Theresa Latchford, MS, CNS

Stanford Cancer Institute - Clinical Trials Office

Emilia Andersen
Sophie Bertrand
Lewis Naya
Kelly Tanner
Hari Priya Yerraballa

 

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Center for Cancer Cell Therapy

Barbara Beebe, MBA
Casey Carr, MHA

Affiliated Centers and Labs

Leadership Biographies

Founding Director
Neuro-Immuno-Oncology

Associate Director
Center for Cancer Cell Therapy

Michelle Monje, MD, PhD

Michelle Monje is a Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Her research program focuses at the intersection of neuroscience and brain cancer biology with an emphasis on neuron-glial interactions in health and oncological disease. Her lab demonstrated that neuronal activity regulates healthy glial precursor cell proliferation, new oligodendrocyte generation, and adaptive myelination; this plasticity of myelin contributes to healthy cognitive function, while disruption of myelin plasticity contributes to cognitive impairment in disease states like cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment. She discovered that neuronal activity similarly promotes the progression of malignant gliomas, driving glioma growth through both paracrine factors and through electrophysiologically functional neuron-to-glioma synapses. Dr. Monje has led several of her discoveries from basic molecular work to clinical trials. Her brain cancer neuroscience work has been recognized with numerous honors, including an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a MacArthur Fellowship and election to the National Academy of Medicine.

Co-Director
Neuro-Immuno-Oncology

Brian J. Scott, MD

Brian J Scott, MD is a board-certified neurologist and Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences with subspecialty board certification in neuro-oncology and neurocritical care. He is a graduate of the Tufts Neurology Residency program in Boston. After residency, he pursued a clinical neuro-oncology fellowship at the Partners combined Massachusetts General Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute program, where he developed expertise in the diagnosis and management of individuals with primary brain tumors, brain metastasis, central nervous system lymphoma, neurologic paraneoplastic syndromes, and complications of cancer therapy. He went on to complete the UCSF Neurohospitalist fellowship after which he remained on faculty at UCSF. He subsequently spent 4 years as the director of inpatient neurology and the medical director of neuro-oncology at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, MA. He helped launch the neurocritical care unit at Lahey in 2015, and served as site PI on clinical trials for stroke and glioblastoma.  Dr. Scott joined the Stanford Neurohospitalist Program in 2017.

Dr. Scott is passionate about improving the system of acute care for individuals with neurologic illness. He has published on how to optimize care pathways for patients with complex neurologic disease, including CNS lymphoma and CAR T cell neurotoxicity. He is invested in thoughtful transitions of care and designed a series of projects to improve patients' knowledge about their medications. He loves teaching medical students and residents and has been selected for institutional and departmental teaching awards. He is the Associate Director of the Neurology Clerkship. He also serves as the faculty director of the resident-led Morbidity, Mortality, & Improvement conference.

Founding Director
Center for Cancer Cell Therapy

Crystal Mackall, MD

Crystal L Mackall, MD is the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at Stanford University. She serves as Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Associate Director of Stanford Cancer Institute, Leader of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford. During a 27 year tenure culminating as Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch, NCI, and now through the Mackall Lab at Stanford, she has led an internationally recognized translational research program focused on immuno-oncology. She has conducted numerous early phase and first-in-human and first-in-child clinical trials spanning dendritic cell vaccines, cytokines, and adoptive immunotherapy using NK cells and genetically modified T cells. Her work is credited with identifying an essential role for the thymus in human T cell regeneration and discovering IL-7 as the master regulator of T cell homeostasis. Her group was among the first to demonstrate impressive activity of CD19-CAR in pediatric leukemia, developed a novel CD22-CAR with impressive activity in leukemia refractory to CD19 targeting and identified T cell exhaustion as a major feature limiting the activity of CAR T cells. Recently her group has developed a novel approach to prevent human T cell exhaustion. Dr. Mackall’s clinical trials are notable for incorporation of deep biologic endpoints that further our understanding of the basis for success and failure of novel immunotherapeutics.