Session Descriptions
8:10 AM - 9:00 AM
Keynote: Equity Effects of Real World Experiments to Improve Access to Clinically Effective Diabetes Treatments
Alyce Sophia Adams, PhD, MPP (Faculty)
This session will describe studies to evaluate the impact of interventions at the health system and policy level to increase access to health care and the implications for disparities in use of evidence based treatment for persons with diabetes
9:10 AM - 9:25 AM
Novel Strategies to Reduce the Innate Immunogenicity of AAV-based Gene Therapy Vectors and Avoid Immunotoxicity
Fraser Wright, PhD (Faculty)
This session will briefly review clinically important barriers to human gene therapy caused by innate responses to rAAV, and describe vector design strategies being developed in my lab to overcome them.
9:25 AM - 9:40 AM
Type 2 Diabetes-Risk Alleles in the Transcription Factor RREB1 Alter Bone and Fat Development
Nicole Krentz, PhD (Postdoctoral Scholar)
Type 2 diabetes and obesity are increasingly prevalent conditions impacting the pediatric population. Improved strategies to prevent and treat both conditions will require a greater molecular understanding of disease. Here I examine how mutations in the RREB1 gene alter risk of diabetes and influence metabolic traits like fat accumulation and bone mineral density. Our current data supports RREB1 as a positive regulator of the fat lineage and suggests that in its absence mesenchymal stem cells can form other cell lineages, including bone.
9:40 AM - 9:55 AM
Teamwork, Targets, Technology, and Tight Control (4T Program) - Improving Outcomes in Youth with Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes
Priya Prahalad, MD (Faculty)
Type 2 diabetes and obesity are increasingly prevalent conditions impacting the pediatric population. Improved strategies to prevent and treat both conditions will require a greater molecular understanding of disease. Here I examine how mutations in the RREB1 gene alter risk of diabetes and influence metabolic traits like fat accumulation and bone mineral density. Our current data supports RREB1 as a positive regulator of the fat lineage and suggests that in its absence mesenchymal stem cells can form other cell lineages, including bone.
10:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Using Machine Learning and Multi-Omics Analysis to Elucidate the Impact of Lifestyle Stressors on the Risk for Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes
Jennifer Dai (Medical Student)
Adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) including early gestational age at delivery, gestational diabetes, severe preeclampsia, or preeclampsia superimposed on hypertension are associated with severe short and long-term consequences for both the mother’s and the child’s health. However, highly efficacious therapeutic options to prevent APOs are currently lacking, highlighting the critical clinical need to find actionable targets for assessing risk and preventing development. Psychosocial and stress-related factors (PSFs), assessed in an extensive questionnaire through queries about lifestyle, social support, and health concerns, among others, are potentially modifiable factors and accessible targets for interventions that are associated with APOs. Because APOs are relatively infrequent in population-level datasets and are therefore challenging to model, multi-task machine learning (MML) is an ideal tool for exploiting their interconnectedness and building on joint combinatorial outcomes to increase predictive power. We found strong correlations between PSFs and APOs, with certain PSF categories that were especially contributory: life stress, health stress, and perceived pregnancy risks. Additionally, PSFs were found to be related to immune system characteristics measured using CyTOF, reinforcing previously hypothesized links between immune status and stress. Elucidating the connections between stress, APOs, and immune characteristics will facilitate the implementation of ML-based, individualized, integrative models of pregnancy in clinical decision making. The modifiable nature of stressors may promote the development of accessible interventions, with success measured through immune characteristics.
10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Lnc122- the miR122 Precursor RNA Plays a Direct Role as a Tumor Suppressor in the Liver
Hagoon Jang, PhD (Postdoctoral Scholar)
This session will focus on the molecular mechanisms and mouse tumorigenesis data of the precursor RNA of miR122-lnc122 that involved in the liver cancer development. Using crispri and crisprA system, we successfully modulate the endogenous lnc122 levels in vivo and in vitro and suggest the lnc122 interacting proteins-mediated cell proliferation regulation.
10:30 AM - 10:45 AM
The Role of Altered Mitochondrial Dynamics in Sepsis Induced End Organ Failure
Bereketeab Haileselassie, MD (Faculty)
This session will provide an overview on the role of dysregulated mitochondrial dynamics in pre-clinical models of sepsis. In particular, we will focus on the impact of sepsis mediated excessive mitochondrial fragmentation on end-organs which are highly dependent on oxidative phosphorylation. We will also discuss the relationship of dysregulated mitochondrial dynamics and extracellular mitochondrial biproducts which has implications on innate immune response in sepsis as well as other inflammatory disorders. Finally, we will highlight some novel peptides and small molecules which augment the GTPase activity of Drp1, decrease excessive mitochondrial fragmentation and have been shown to have a protective effect on pre-clinical models of sepsis.
1:00 PM - 1:15 PM
Impact of a Trained Neonatal Transport Team on Newborn Outcomes in Western India
Emma Squire, MD (Resident)
This session we will examine neonatal outcomes following development of a specialized neonatal transport team at Shrimad Rajchandra Hospital (SRH), a charitable tertiary care hospital in Gujarat, India. The SHR Neonatal transport team was a collaboration between Stanford Healthcare and local healthcare leaders that has led to more effective and equitable patient transports in this region, and has broadened access to intensive newborn care.
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM
Weighing the Evidence on Being Overweight and All-cause Mortality in Light of Uncontrolled Confounding
Maya Mathur, PhD (Faculty)
Does being overweight affect all-cause mortality? This question has been controversial,1 with two prominent meta-analyses of nonrandomized studies reporting opposing conclusions. I will discuss the credibility of this evidence in light of potential uncontrolled confounding. In doing so, I will illustrate how to apply statistical sensitivity analyses to characterize the robustness of findings to potential confounding.
1:30PM - 1:45PM
Mind the Gap: How Multiracial Individuals Get Left Behind When We Talk About Race, Ethnicity, and Ancestry in Genomic Research
Daphne Martschenko, PhD, MPhil (Postdoctoral Scholar)
For the past decade, it has been widely acknowledged that there is a diversity problem in genomics stemming from the vast under-representation of non-European ancestry populations. While many challenges exist to address this gap, a major complicating factor is the disconnect between how we define our populations and how those definitions influence the way in which we conduct research and translate findings to benefit human health. Recent conversations have largely focused on a lack of clarity of terminology with a push towards ontologies rooted in acknowledging the difference between genetic ancestry and race, most of which still rely on the discretization of the continuous spectrum of human diversity. These frameworks largely ignore how we would utilize data from people of mixed ancestral backgrounds, leading to their continued exclusion from basic research and therefore downstream potential benefits. Any novel framework to establish standards around race, ethnicity, and genetic ancestry must deliberately and explicitly address multiracial individuals, which according to the 2020 US Census is the fastest growing group among all racial/ethnic categories. I will outline current practices in genomic research that fail multiracial individuals in both research and clinical care settings, suggest open questions that warrant conversations to ensure that the benefits of precision health are accessible to everyone, and provide concrete solutions for future research in genetics.
1:45PM - 2:45PM
How to Use Race in Research Studies
- Panel Moderators: Stephanie M. Smith, MD MPH & Daphne Matschenko, PhD, MPhil
- Marva Moxey-Mims, MD - Nephrology, Children's National
- Catherine Tcheandjieu, DVM, PhD (UCSF, Gladstone Institute)
