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.