Bio
Robert M. DiFazio, PhD, is the Director of Strategy & Research Development within the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection (ITI) at Stanford Medicine. He develops proposals and grants for ITI and has worked with faculty to bring in tens of millions of new dollars? worth of funding. He currently oversees a portfolio of 8 grants by monitoring and reporting on their completion towards milestones and deliverables, while providing scientific input and working on an ad hoc basis to help investigators with scientific and logistical problems. He acts as scientific liaison for the institute, connecting institute investigators to one another, to other Stanford faculty, and to key thought leaders outside of the university, including disease and technology experts and important stakeholders. As part of these efforts he writes scientific and lay reports and other promotional and educational materials to share ITI research with donors, stakeholders, and the scientific community through regular conference attendance. He also works to support scientific training, through development of funding and curricula as well as tracking impact and success of the educational programs, as well as drives strategic planning and analysis for long-term growth of the institute.
He also founded and is the Program Director of the Center for Immunogen Discovery and Development (CIDD), a launchpad for immunogen development and testing with broad applications to a variety of human diseases, where he is working to form the initial infrastructure for the center, engage in mid-development screening of immunogen candidates, create an immunogen discovery and development pipeline, and lay groundwork for additional vaccine development strategies.
Robert is focused on empowering and supporting researchers to do their best work at every level and stage of the scientific process. His ultimate goal is to deploy research development strategies at the laboratory, department, and institute levels to increase scientific output, quality, and impact while reducing waste.
Robert holds a PhD in Molecular Virology and Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a BS with high distinction in Chemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Current Role at Stanford
My current role within the Stanford Medicine community as Director of Strategy & Research Development is centered around directing the research development activities of the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection. These activities include: grant/contract proposal development; development of trainee programs and analysis of efficacy; building of research teams and collaborative endeavors; interaction with funding agencies and institutional research administration and leadership; interaction with institutional federal relations; funding opportunity identification and targeted dissemination; and outreach activities and training.
Education & Certifications
-
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Molecular Virology and Microbiology (2016)
-
B.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Chemistry (High Distinction)/Molecular and Cellular Biology (2010)