Current Research and Scholarly Interests
My research interest is in viral infections commonly affecting immunocompromised patients and in the viruses' stimulation of the host's immune system. I have a special interest in latent and persistent viruses, such as cytomegalovirus, BK virus, adenovirus, hepatitis B virus and others. I focus on the host immune response to these viruses with the end goal of improving clinical practices. I collaborate with individual and core viral/immunology laboratories to conduct my research, primarily on T-cell responses.
As Co-director of the Stanford Childrens' Pediatric Infectious Diseases Program in Immunocompromised Hosts (PIDPIC), I develop and conduct clinical and translational studies to improve identification, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases in the immunocompromised patient population. In collaboration with the clinical teams, we establish best practices from our clinical studies and start new clinical initiatives, in order to improve our care for this complex patient population.
My scholarly work extends to education research. I have a special interest in how people think and make decisions. These are vital skills to continually improve in order to provide high-quality care to patients. "Thinking" is a hidden process, so I am building tools to expose these hidden skills, and I am taking advantage of large language models and AI to help detect and analyze these skills. Using design thinking principles and rooted in education pedagogy, I am building these teaching and assessment tools to promote continual learning and cultivate a thinking mindset. I collaborate with education experts in the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school).
