Our Team

Dr. Rabinovitch is proud to lead a team of talented individuals working together to advance cardiopulmonary research.

FACULTY

Marlene Rabinovitch, MD
Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatrics, Cardiology

Director, Basic Science and Engineering (BASE) Initiative,
Betty Irene Moore Children's Heart Center

Dr. Rabinovitch joined Stanford University School of Medicine Faculty in the summer of 2002 as the Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, and Scientist at the Vera Moulton Wall Center for Pulmonary Vascular Disease. In 2018, she became the Director of the Basic Science and Engineering (BASE) Initiative in Stanford Children's Health of the Betty Irene Moore Children's Heart Center. She is also the Associated Director in Basic Research at Stanford’s Cardiovascular Institute. From 2002-2013, she was appointed as Professor (by courtesy) of Developmental Biology. Dr. Rabinovitch is a graduate of McGill University Medical School and completed her pediatrics training at the University of Colorado and sub-specialty training in cardiology at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She was Assistant Professor at Harvard and then moved back to Canada where she became Associate and later Professor of Pediatrics, Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Hospital for Sick Children. There, she was the Director of Cardiovascular Research and held the Robert M. Freedom/Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair.

Dr. Rabinovitch has received numerous awards for her research and mentoring over the years, the most recent being in 2026, the Earl P. Benditt Award from the North American Vascular Biology Organization; Stanford Cardiovascular Institute Faculty Recognition Award in 2024; the Research Achievement Award from the American Heart Association in 2023; ATVB Distinguished Lectureship in 2021; the Robert Beamish Leadership Award from the University of Manitoba in 2019, and in 2017 from the American Heart Association, the Distinguished Scientist Lecturer at the Scientific Sessions. In 2016, she was named the J. Burns Amberson Lecturer at the ATS International Conference in San Francisco. ATS also gave her the Robert F Grover Prize for the Assembly on Pulmonary Circulation. In 2015, she was presented with the Mentor Award for Excellence from the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. In 2012, she received the Judtih Pool Award from the Northern California Chapter of the Association for Women in Science. In 2010, she received the Louis and Artur Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Diseases from McGill University. Then, the American Thoracic Society Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishment in 2008. She is the recipient of the 2006 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist Award, and in 2005 she was the American Heart Association Dickinson Richards Lecturer. Previous awards include the 2004 Canadian Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) Distinguished Lecture and Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences; the 2004 AHA Basic Research Prize; the University of Kentucky Gill Heart Institute Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cardiovascular Research (2003); the AHA Paul Dudley White International Lectureship (2002); a Research Achievement Award from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (1994); the Julius Comroe Lectureship from the American Physiological Society (1996), an Endowed Research Chair from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (1997); the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Award of Merit (1999); the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2000), and the McGill University Cushing Memorial Award in Pediatrics (1971). She has given numerous named lectureships in North America and served as a Visiting Professor in many countries in Europe, the UK, Australia and Asia. She has more than 237 peer-reviewed publications and 130+ invited reviews, articles, and book chapters.

Dr. Rabinovitch completed a five-year term in 2016 on the External Advisory Board of the NHLBI Lung Repair and Regeneration Consortium (LRRC), and also she completed a four-year term on the NIH/NHLBI Scientific Advisory Council in 2011. She is currently on the Executive Committee of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute and has served on the Executive Council of the American Pediatric Society and Scientific Advisory Boards of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, the MPI for Heart and Lung Research Board of the Max Planck Society, the Children’s Discovery Institute of Washington University, the Doris Duke and Burroughs Wellcome Foundations, and numerous NIH Training Grants. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in addition to the Association of American Physicians, and has been Associate Editor of Circulation Research and the Annual Reviews of Physiology. The main focus of her research program is on uncovering fundamental genetic, metabolic, and inflammatory mechanisms causing pulmonary hypertension that can be translated to the clinic.

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Richard D. Bland, MD
Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics - Neonatal and Developmental Medicine

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Dr. Bland is a graduate of Phillips Academy Andover (1958), Yale University (BA, 1962) and Boston University School of Medicine (MD, 1966). He completed an internship and residency in Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD (1966-69), followed by a 3-year stint as a US Army staff pediatrician and Chief of Newborn Medicine at Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii (1969-1972). During his military service, Dr. Bland did several clinical studies that led to 4 published papers, one of which was a solo-authored paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. He twice received the Ogden C. Bruton Award for research on the role of plasma proteins in neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. Dr Bland did a postdoctoral fellowship in lung vascular biology and newborn medicine at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco (1973-74), where he became Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in 1975 and advanced to Professor of Pediatrics in 1984. An Established Investigator of the American Heart Association (1979-84), he was appointed to the Senior Staff of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF in 1982. Dr. Bland’s research has focused on lung fluid balance during development and on the pathogenesis and treatment of acute and chronic neonatal lung injury. He did a 1-year research sabbatical at Oxford University (1982-3), where in collaboration with Dr. Richard Boyd he discovered that events associated with labor cause an increase in lung epithelial Na+,K+-ATPase activity, which provides the driving force for clearance of liquid from the lungs during and after birth. In 1989, Dr. Bland moved from UCSF to the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he was Fields Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Lung Biology until 2002, when he relocated to Stanford University as Professor of Pediatrics in the Cardiopulmonary Research Program and the Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine. Dr. Bland received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Boston University School of Medicine (1996) and recently was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Medicine from Uppsala University in Sweden (2004) for his research related to lung fluid balance during development and pulmonary edema in the pathogenesis of newborn lung disease.

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Previous Contributions from the Bland Lab at Stanford

Stanford Murine Newborn Intensive Care

The Bland lab focused on lung growth and development, and the adverse impact of prolonged mechanical ventilation on the incompletely formed lung, which in very premature infants often leads to a life-threatening condition that was first described as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (Northway WH Jr et al, New Engl J Med 276: 357-368, 1967). This form of neonatal chronic lung disease is the leading cause of long-term hospitalization and recurrent respiratory disorders seen in tiny infants who have been born at less than 28 weeks of gestation. Failed alveolar formation and disordered lung elastin are prominent histological features of this disease, which in some ways resembles adult emphysema. We study the effects of mechanical ventilation, with either air or 40% oxygen, on genes and proteins that regulate lung growth and development in newborn mice, whose alveoli and pulmonary capillaries form mainly after birth at term gestation.

As elastin plays a crucial role in lung growth and development (elastin-null mice die soon after birth from cardiorespiratory failure related to defective alveolar and lung vascular formation), our group has a special interest in studying the effects of prolonged mechanical ventilation (cyclic lung stretch) with oxygen-rich gas (which is often needed to sustain life of extremely premature infants) on genes that regulate elastin synthesis and assembly, which in turn can affect lung septation and angiogenesis. As mechanical ventilation of developing lungs can trigger release of proteolytic enzymes that break down elastin, we recently completed studies showing that intrapulmonary treatment of newborn mice with elafin, a potent inhibitor of serine elastase activity, prevented the adverse effects of mechanical ventilation on lung growth. In addition, we discovered that intrapulmonary treatment of newborn mice with a neutralizing antibody to TGFß preserved VEGF signaling, prevented apoptosis and promoted lung growth during mechanical ventilation. These studies provide strong rationale for developing novel strategies to treat or prevent neonatal chronic lung disease, and perhaps other respiratory disorders that exhibit similar pathological features in older children and adults.

RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION

Michal Bental Roof, PhD
Academic and Research Program Officer, Rabinovitch Lab and BASE

(650) 724-9589 — Office Phone
(650) 723-6700 — Fax
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Dr. Michal Bental Roof joined our group as an Academic and Research Program Officer in 2002. She oversees grant proposal development, manuscript preparation, regulatory compliance and reporting internally (IRB, APLAC, biosafety) and externally (FDA, NIH). She coordinates the translational program headed by Drs. Rabinovitch and Zamanian in collaboration with Proteo to develop Elafin as a PAH therapy, and with our Clinical Research Coordinator, oversees the activities of the Stanford Transplant Tissue Bank. Dr. Roof supports our BASE faculty in special projects and with internal and external regulatory issues.

Dr. Roof received her BSc in Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and MSc and PhD in the Life Sciences from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Her doctoral work studied the response of a unicellular alga to osmotic shock, developing a setup to follow living cells in real time using NMR spectroscopy. Following postdoctoral research with Dr. Carol Deutsch at the University of Pennsylvania, investigating T-cell activation using real time NMR spectroscopy, she was Scientific Development Administrator of Penn’s Institute for Medicine and Engineering, and completed a business management certificate program at the Wharton Business School. Previous Stanford responsibilities included coordinating the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Science Concentration and the MED223 class (from inception in 2005 to 2015), coordination of the Stanford K12 Program in "Omics of Lung Disease" and the CVI T32 training grant "Mechanisms and Innovation in Vascular Disease”.

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Nicole Navarro, PhD
Research Project Manager

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Dr. Nicole Navarro joined BASE as a Research Project Manager in 2025. Nicole supports Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch and other BASE faculty with both pre-award and post-award activities, including proposal development, manuscript preparation, project planning, and reporting & compliance. She thrives in a training-focused environment and is passionate about mentoring trainees, guiding them in both scientific development and professional growth.

A Bay Area native and Boston College alumnus, Nicole began her career as a Health Technologies Research Engineer at Apple. She then earned her Chemical Biology PhD from UC Berkeley, where she developed carbon nanotube-based nanosensors for brain imaging and viral detection applications in Dr. Markita Landry’s lab. After graduate school, she returned to industry research at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she developed bespoke surface chemistries to improve high-throughput genomic sequencing platforms.

Nicole currently lives near Twin Peaks with her partner, Alex, and Karl, the San Francisco fog. She enjoys hiking, camping, weightlifting, and reading horror novels.

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Hadley Bickford, BS, RVT
BASE Operations Manager

(650) 723-8239 - Office Phone
(650) 723-6700 - Fax
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Hadley is originally from the Napa Valley and attended Iowa State University, where she received a BS in Animal Science. She returned to the Bay Area after graduation to work at Peninsula Equine Medical Center as a veterinary technician. During her time there, she completed the Veterinary Allied Staff Education Accelerated RVT Program and received her Registered Veterinary Technician License in 2018. She then took over duties as Lead Technician and Office and Hospital Manager, overseeing all day to day operations of the practice.

Hadley joined BASE in 2022 and now serves as the Operations Manager for BASE and Administrator for the Rabinovitch Lab. Her role includes overseeing the day to day operational and administrative needs of the laboratory and staff. Hadley values being part of a collaborative team and brings strong organizational skills and a proactive approach to her work.

Away from Stanford, you can often find her hiking, spending time on the ranch where she lives, or showing her horse in Western Pleasure competitions, most recently winning a world title in Disciplined Rail.

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RESEARCH SCIENTISTS

Lingli Wang, MD
Basic Life Research Scientist
Lab Manager

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Dr. Lingli Wang joined Dr. Rabinovitch’s group in July 2003 as lab manager, bringing over 10 years of experience in life science research to the group. Dr. Wang manages the transgenic mouse lines produced and used in the different research projects. With Dr. Cao, she trains new postdoctoral fellows and laboratory staff, and manages the day to day operations of the lab. In addition to managing the lab, Dr. Wang also investigates the cardiovascular phenotype in mice with tissue specific deletion of BMPRII. She found that loss of Bmpr2 in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC) causes congenital heart diseases in mice. The penetrance is about 50%, and the survivors developed pulmonary hypertension (PH) in a mouse model of reoxygenation after chronic hypoxia. She found that loss of Bmpr2 in PASMC leads to reduced contractility and heightened proliferation, caused by elevated SMAD2/3 and ARRB2 and consequent increase in pAKT mediated activation of β-Catenin and reduction in RHOA/RAC1.

Dr. Wang received her MD degree from the Fourth Army Medical University in Xi'an, China. She completed her postdoctoral studies at Stanford's Dept. of Pediatrics in 1997, where she investigated the mechanism of interferon resistance in rotavirus. Prior to Stanford, she worked at the University of Southern California, School of Medicine. Following her postdoctoral studies, Dr. Wang worked in Stanford's Dept. of Pediatrics Hematology and Oncology Division, investigating multi-drug resistance, and found a novel inhibitor of apoptosis, ARMER; and in the Dept. of Pathology, where she investigated markers for human kidney tumors using cDNA and tissue microarrays and computer-assisted data analysis.

Lingli's project

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Kamakshi Dattatray Bichu
Life Science Research Professional 1

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Kamakshi earned her MS from Duke University in December 2023, where she conducted her research under the guidance of Dr. Dmitry Velmeshev. Her research focused on designing and fabricating 3D-printed scaffolds optimized for neuronal stem cell growth. Her work included differentiating iPSCs into neural stem cells and fostering organoid formation. She experimented with various bioink formulations and adhesion molecules, refining scaffold compatibility to support organoid development.

In May 2024, Kamakshi joined the Rabinovitch lab, where her research explores why some BMPR2 mutation carriers are protected from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) despite carrying a mutation associated with the disease. By using metabolic labeling techniques, she aims to identify the regulatory mechanisms that may protect these unaffected carriers. Understanding these mechanisms could shed light on why similar regulatory pathways might be absent or altered in familial PAH patients, ultimately leading to disease onset.

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Yuxi Zhang
Basic Life Science Research Professional 1

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Yuxi Zhang joined the Rabinovitch Lab in August 2025 as a Life Science Research Professional. He is originally from Taiyuan, China, and completed his undergraduate training at the University of California, Berkeley, where he pursued a dual degree with honors in molecular biology and metabolic biology, and conducted two honors theses.

In the Rabinovitch Lab, Yuxi’s work focuses on animal models of pulmonary vascular disease. His primary responsibilities include managing transgenic mouse colonies, breeding and genotyping strategies, and supporting in vivo studies aimed at understanding the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Prior to joining Stanford, Yuxi conducted research at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) at UC Berkeley in the Murthy Lab, where he worked on lipid nanoparticle engineering for therapeutic delivery. His research integrated molecular and biochemical approaches with in vitro and in vivo functional assays.

Yuxi’s research interests center on the use of animal models and molecular biology approaches to investigate disease mechanisms and support translational research in cardiovascular and pulmonary biology.

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Aiqin Cao, PhD
Life Science Research Professional 4

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Dr. Cao joined the Rabinovitch Laboratory in April 2011, where she manages day to day operations in the lab with Dr. Lingli Wang, supervises new fellows and performs key experiments to finalize projects for publication. In addition to these duties, Dr. Cao investigates the mechanism of arterial and venous dysfunction in Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) obtained from both healthy individuals and from HLHS patients.

Dr. Aiqin Cao received her PhD degree in Biology from Purdue University. Her graduate research in the laboratory of Dr. K.G. Raghothama focused on the molecular mechanism of plant response to phosphate (Pi) stress. Dr. Cao showed that Phosphate differentially regulates 14-3-3 family members, and GRF9 plays a role in Pi-starvation induced responses in Arabidopsis thaliana, and that a protein phosphatase gene family from tomato (LePS2;1) and from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtPS2) are induced during phosphate starvation. The studies shed a light on the adaptive response of plants to Pi deficiency that could be altered in a genetically modified plant to allow it to adapt to natural Pi stress. For her postdoctoral studies, Dr. Cao joined Stanford’s Division of Endocrinology investigating the molecular mechanism of human oncostatin M (OM) mediated signal transductions in lipid metabolism. She identified long chain acyl-CoA synthetase-3 (ACSL3) as a molecular target for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta, and, in a second project, demonstrated that the suppression of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) expression by OM as a mechanism that increases LDLR protein in liver cells.

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Patricia A. del Rosario, BSN, RN, PHN
Clinical Research Coordinator 2

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Patricia Del Rosario joined the Rabinovitch lab in May 2009. is the clinical research coordinator for the Stanford Transplant Tissue Bank, formerly part of the Pulmonary Hypertension Breakthrough Initiative (PHBI) led by Drs. Zamanian and Rabinovitch, and a research nurse for PH clinical trial studies at Stanford’s Adult PH Program. With Dr. Roof, Ms. del Rosario played a key role in the coordination and oversight of the Phase 1 clinical trial “Safety and Tolerability of Escalating Doses of Subcutaneous Elafin (Tiprelestat) Injection in Healthy Normal Subjects”, including the development of the study protocol, eCRFs, sample collection kits, obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals.

Patricia earned a BS in Biochemistry from San Francisco State University and a BS in Nursing from Dominican University of California. Prior to working at Stanford, she worked at Exelixis, Inc. as a research associate in combinatorial chemistry and, after pursuing her nursing education, in Marin General Hospital as a labor and delivery/NICU nurse.

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POSTDOCS, VISITING RESEARCHERS & STUDENTS

Chongyang Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

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Dr. Zhang received her BS/MS in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Buffalo, New York, and her PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of Rochester, New York. During her PhD research in the laboratory of Dr. Chen Yan she investigated the role of a cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase 1C (PDE1C) in the phenotype change of smooth muscle cells and abdominal aortic aneurysm. She also studied the pharmacological effects of various PDE inhibitors in the regulation of aortic aneurysm progression. Dr. Zhang’s current research focuses on flow mediated regulation of ALDH3A1, and how this enzyme coordinates endothelial cell metabolism, chromatin remodeling and gene expression. A second project determines the role of SOX17 in causing severe pulmonary arterial hypertension when there is a congenital heart defect with high shear stress.

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Yapeng Liu, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

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Dr. Liu received her M.D. degree in clinical medicine (Cardiology) from Shandong University, China. During her doctoral training at the Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Remodeling and Function Research, she gained extensive experience in basic cardiovascular research under the supervision of Dr. Cheng Zhang and Dr. Meng Zhang. Her work focused on elucidating the role of an E3 ligase in macrophages in exacerbating atherosclerosis through the regulation of lipid metabolism and inflammation. Based on single-cell RNA sequencing, she identified a novel therapeutic target for atherosclerosis, supported by evidence from human and animal histology as well as cellular and molecular studies. She has also investigated other disease models, including type 2 diabetes and abdominal aortic aneurysm, through which she developed a comprehensive understanding of cardiovascular biology.

As a postdoctoral researcher in the Rabinovitch laboratory, Dr. Liu will focus on monocyte biology in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and investigate how PAH-associated mutations directly impact monocyte function and disease pathogenesis. She will also examine whether iPSC-derived macrophages or monocyte-derived dendritic cells exhibit abnormalities similar to those observed in monocytes following BMPR2 deletion. For in vivo studies, she will explore experimental conditions that induce more severe PAH in animal models.

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Mauro Lago-Docampo, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

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Dr. Lago-Docampo received his BS (Biology), MS (Biotechnology) and PhD from the University of Vigo in Spain in the laboratory of Dr. Diana Valverde. His PhD thesis focused on the functional characterization of mutations detected in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) patients, with a goal to improve genetic diagnosis and gain basic knowledge on PAH development. He studied the implication of mutations in the gene ABCC8 on exon processing, and conducted functional analyses of variants in untranslated and regulatory regions of the Endothelin-1 gene, finding a link between a common SNP in the 5'UTR and PPARG. He spent three months as a visiting PhD student in Dr. Morrell’s lab at Cambridge University, UK, where he performed functional analyses for the TBX4 variants reported in PAH. Dr. Lago-Docampo joined the Rabinovitch Laboratory in March 2022 as a Postdoctoral Scholar. His project aims to understand the impact of TBX4 variation on the interactome, DNA binding, epigenetic regulation, gene expression and function. He will use iPSCs to generate a variety of cell types to elucidate the impact of TBX4 mutants on lung development and disease, and, will study TBX4-mutant cells in high throughput shRNA, Perturb-Seq, small molecule, or drug screens to identify agents and pathways that can overcome the abnormal phenotype and can be harnessed therapeutically.

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Olga Pushkarev, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint with Jesse Engreitz' Lab, Genetics

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Dr. Pushkarev earned her PhD in Computational and Quantitative Biology from EPFL in Lausanne, following a BS in Mathematics and MS in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. During her doctoral work, she investigated the modular architecture of the human genome and its role in gene regulation. Olga and her colleagues unified complementary insights into cis-regulatory element (CRE) cooperation under the concept of "chromatin modules” (CMs). This research revealed how groups of regulatory elements coordinate gene expression in a cell type-specific manner, established a framework for the functional characterization of CRE interactions, and underscored the significance of non-coding genetic variants in disease susceptibility and progression.

As a postdoctoral researcher in the Rabinovitch and Engreitz laboratories, Olga continues to study gene regulatory mechanisms underlying human disease, particularly pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). She aims to uncover the roles of key genes in PAH onset and progression, leveraging single-cell perturbation data to identify potential therapeutic targets. In addition, she aims to map gene expression dynamics in cells from familial PAH patients, with the goal of pinpointing early regulatory events that contribute to the disease phenotype.

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Jeonghyun Son, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint with Mark Skylar-Scott's Lab, Bioengineering

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Dr. Son received his BS, MS, and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology in the Republic of Korea. During his PhD in Dr. Hyun-Wook Kang’s laboratory, he focused on developing novel bio-printing techniques to fabricate tissue-specific microvasculature within 3D constructs. He also applied his technique to engineer in vitro vascularized tissue models and pre-vascularized grafts for ischemic tissue therapy. Currently, in the Rabinovitch Laboratory, Dr. Son’s research explores the interactions between endothelial and smooth muscle cells within bio-fabricated arteriole chip models, with the goal of identifying genomic mediators in the progression of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Additionally, he is also focusing on building vascularized cardiac tissue models to investigate multi-cellular interactions that are critical for engineering matured cardiac tissues in vitro.

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RECENT ALUMNI

Name/Position	Years in Lab	Prior Academic Degree(s), year, and Institution	Research Project	Current Position
Isabel Blanco, MD, PhD Visiting Scholar	2025	MD, 2000 Univ. of Barcelona PhD, 2011 Univ. of Barcelona	Characterizing BMPR2 gene mutations and their penetrance in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension	Clinician, Hospital Clinic Barcelona, Spain
Mir Adil, PharmD, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2022-2025	PhD, 2021 Univ of Georgia PharmD, 2014 Jawaharlal Nehru Tech Univ., India	uncovering the mechanism leading to the abnormal increase in the expression of human endogenous retroviruses in myeloid cells	Associate Professor of Pharmacology, DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, Lincoln Memorial Univ, Tennessee
Emmanouil Mavrogiannis Visiting Student Researcher	2024-2025	BSc, 2019 University of Groningen, Netherlands	Inflammasome and HERV activation in pulmonary arterial hypertension	PhD Student, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands
Divya Guntur Visiting Student Researcher	2023-2024	MSc, 2019 Vellore Institute of Technology, India	ion channels and iPSCs derived-inflammatory cells from patients suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) to expand the boundaries of PAH research and the opportunities for treatment	PhD Student, University of Graz, Vienna, Austria
Seo Woo Song, PhD Visiting Scholar	2022-2024	PhD, 2019 Seoul National University, Korea	high throughput approach to producing fibrin scaffolds that support SMC alignment and growth and endothelial cells that sense flow	Principal investigator, the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST),
Xin Zhou, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2019-2024	PhD, University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, CT	monocyte and dendritic cell subsets in PAH and how the transcriptome and CYTOF can influence their interaction with vascular and other inflammatory cells
Sarasa Isobe, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2018-2023	MD, 2007, National Defense Medical College; PhD, 2018, Keio Univ, Tokyo	PPARgamma and DNA damage in pulmonary hypertension	Assistant Professor, International University of Health and Welfare, Mita Hospital, Japan
Jason Szafron, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2021-2023	PhD, 2020 Yale University	Exploring the multi-scale growth and remodeling of pulmonary arteries in pediatric pulmonary hypertension and its corresponding hemodynamic consequences	Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
David Marciano, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2015-2022	PhD, 2015 Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL	Profiling cellular metabolism and the molecular mechanisms underlying disease pathogenesis using multi-omics approaches	Assistant Professor, Dept. of Cellular Biology and Pharmacology, Florida International University (FIU) Center for Translational Science in Port St Lucie, Florida
Jan-Renier Moonen, MD, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2016-2022	MD, 2011 PhD, 2013 University of Groningen, Netherlands	Expression analysis of native and iPSC-derived vascular cells in pulmonary hypertension	Scientific Director, Precision Medicine Immunology, AbbVie, Boston, MA
Tsutomu Shinohara, MD, PhD	2018-2021	PhD, 2015 Nagoya City Univ, Japan; MD, 2005, Univ of Yamanashi, Japan	High sheer in PH and Jagged 1 in pulmonary artery obstruction	Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Neonatology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan
Shalina Taylor, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2014-2021	PhD, 2013 University of Illinois, Chicago	The role of neutrophils and other inflammatory cells in PH, and the effect of elafin on neutrophil function	Senior Researcher, Abbvie, South San Francisco, CA
Dan Li, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2015-2021	PhD, 2013 Peking University, Beijing, China	Metabolite profiling regulates the smooth muscle cells dysfunction in PAH	Senior Scientist in Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Burlingame, CA
Marcy Martin, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2019-2021	PhD, 2019 UC, San Diego	Using organoid technology to model pulmonary hypertension	R&D Manager, MUVON Therapeutics, Zurich, Switzerland
Rebecca Harper, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2018-2020	PhD, 2018 Univ of Adelaide, Australia	Monocyte and macrophage biology in pulmonary hypertension	Senior Postdoc, Cardiac Cellular Systems Lab, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Shoichiro Otsuki, MD, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow	2017-2020	MD, 2004; PhD, 2015 Mie University, Japan	The role of human endogenous retrovirus K (HERV-K) in PAH PAEC	Mie University Graduate School of Medicine
Yifei Miao, PhD	2018-2020	PhD, 2012 Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Peking University Health Science Center, Peking University Diabetes Center, Beijing CHINA		Instructor, Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Mingixa Gu, MD, PhD Postdoc/Instructor	2015-2020	MD, 2009 PhD, 2013 Health Science Center, Peking Univ/ Stanford Medical School	Using Patient-Specific IPSC Derived Endothelial Cells to Gain New Insights into Pathobiology and Therapy of FPAH and IPAH	Associate Professor, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Toshie Saito, MD Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate	2010-2019	MD, 2000 Gunma Univ School of Med, Japan	Elastin, Elastase and Autoimmunity in Pulmonary Hypertension	Basic Life Science Research Associate, Stanford University School of Medicine
James Chappell Postdoctoral Fellow	2015 - 2018	PhD, 2015 Univ of Georgia, Athens, GA	Endothelial cell biology by generation and interpretation of multi-omic datasets	Director of Research & Development, MNG Labs, Atlanta, GA
Yoonhong Chun Visiting Professor	2017 – 2018	MD, 2002 PhD, 2015 Catholic Univ of Korea	Response of pulmonary arterial hypertension endothelial cells to laminar and disturbed flow	Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
Roger Thompson Visiting Postdoc	2017 – 2018	MRCP, 2005 Royal College of Physicians PhD, 2013 Univ of Sheffield	The role of double-stranded RNA in pulmonary vascular remodeling	JG Graves Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow and Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, University of Sheffield, UK
Shuai Mao Visiting Assistant Professor	2017 – 2018	MD, 2014 Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine	Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived vascular smooth muscle cells in pulmonary hypertension: differentiation and therapeutic potential	Associate Professor of Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
Diederik van der Feen Visiting Instructor	2017	MD, 2014 University of Groningen, Netherlands	Identification of vascular molecular profiles associated with the reversibility of flow-induced PAH	Completed his PhD at University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands
Ajay Bhatia Clincial/Research Fellow	2016 – 2017	MD, 2008 Washington University	The impact of disturbed flow on pulmonary arterial endothelial cell function in patients with APAH and CHD.	Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Cardiac Intensive Care, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Louisiana State University School of Medicine
Pin-I Chen Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate	2011-2017	PhD, 2009 Washington University, St. Louis, MO	Beta arrestins at the crossroads of BMPR2 signaling	Basic Life Science Research Associate, Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
Kazuya Miyagawa Postdoctoral Fellow	2014-2017	MD, 2003 PhD, 2010 Kobe University School of Medicine	Inflammation, metabolism, and mitochondrial function as they relate to pulmonary hypertension	Assistant Professor, Clinical Pharmacy, Kobe Pharmaceutical University, Kobe, Japan
Caiyun "Grace" Li Postdoctoral Fellow	2011-2017	PhD, 2010 University of Otago, New Zealand	The Role of PPARgamma and the DNA damage repair mechanism and its relation to PAH	Basic Life Science Research Associate, Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
Johanna Altmann Visiting Student Researcher	2016	PhD candidate, 2017 Medical University of Vienna	Studies on B cells by CyTOF in patients with idiopathic and thromboembolic pulmonary arterial hypertension	Completed her PhD at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Jan Hennigs Postdoctoral Fellow	2012-2016	MD, 2009 University of Hamburg, Germany	P53-PPARgamma interaction and immune dysregulation in pulmonary hypertension	Researcher, University of Hamburg, Germany
Silin Sa Research Associate	2012-2016	PhD, 2013 University of California, Merced		Senior Scientist, Beckton-Dickinson, San Jose, CA
Nancy Ferriera Tojais Postdoctoral Fellow	2011-2016	PhD, 2010 University of Bordeaux2, France	Roles of TGFbeta and BMP4 in regulating elastin fiber assembly in the vessel wall; the harvest and analysis of lung tissue for patients with PAH	Regulatory Medical Writer, International Consulting Group, San Jose, CA
Nathaly Sweeney Postdoctoral Fellow	2011-2015	MD, 2004 Columbia University, NY	DNA damage in pulmonary hypertension	Clinician, University of California San Diego
Rachel Hopper Postdoctoral Fellow	2011-2014	MD, 2007 University of Michigan	The role of HMGA1 in pulmonary hypertension	Clinical Associate Professor (and Associate Director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Program based within the Children’s Heart Center), Stanford Univ.
Isabel Diebold Postdoctoral Fellow	2013-2014	MD, 2003 Wolfgang Goethe Univ, Germany	Role of nitrated fatty acids in pulmonary vascular remodeling: a novel protective mechanism?	Pediatrician, Medical Genetics Center, Munich, Germany
Dan Shaked Postdoctoral Fellow	2011-2013	MD, 2007 Univ of Texas Health Science Ctr, San Antonio	Regulation of smooth muscle cell elastase in pulmonary hypertension	Pediatrician (PICU) at Kaiser Hospital, Oakland
Nils Nickel Postdoctoral Fellow	2011-2014	MD, 2010 Hannover Med School, Germany	Innate immunity and DNA methylation changes in PAH	Critical Care Medicine Specialist, Univ. Medical Center of El Paso, TX
Christopher Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow	2011- 2013	PhD, 2011 Imperial College, London, UK	RNAseq analysis of iPSC Derived versus Native PA Endothelial Cells in Patients with PAH vs. Controls	Junior Research Fellow, Imperial College, London
Akihito Sasaki Postdoctoral Fellow	2011-2012	MD, 1995 PhD, 2007 Tokyo Univ, Japan	Elafin: A novel treatment for PH	Assistant Professor, Dept of Pediatrics and Developmental Biology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University
Aiqin Cao Postdoctoral Fellow	2011-2012	PhD, 2007 Purdue University	BMPR2 loss of function and ER stress	Research Associate, Rabinovitch Lab, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Vinicio de Jesus Perez Postdoctoral Fellow	2005-2011	MD, 2000 University of Puerto Rico	Wnt signaling pathway and the role of ApoE in the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension	Associate Professor, Medicine/Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

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Our Team

Dr. Rabinovitch is proud to lead a team of talented individuals working together to advance cardiopulmonary research.

Marlene Rabinovitch, MD
Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatrics, Cardiology

Director, Basic Science and Engineering (BASE) Initiative,
Betty Irene Moore Children's Heart Center

Richard D. Bland, MD
Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics - Neonatal and Developmental Medicine

Previous Contributions from the Bland Lab at Stanford

Michal Bental Roof, PhD
Academic and Research Program Officer, Rabinovitch Lab and BASE

Nicole Navarro, PhD
Research Project Manager

Hadley Bickford, BS, RVT
BASE Operations Manager

Lingli Wang, MD
Basic Life Research Scientist
Lab Manager

Kamakshi Dattatray Bichu
Life Science Research Professional 1

Yuxi Zhang
Basic Life Science Research Professional 1

Aiqin Cao, PhD
Life Science Research Professional 4

Patricia A. del Rosario, BSN, RN, PHN
Clinical Research Coordinator 2

Chongyang Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Yapeng Liu, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Mauro Lago-Docampo, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Olga Pushkarev, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint with Jesse Engreitz' Lab, Genetics

Jeonghyun Son, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint with Mark Skylar-Scott's Lab, Bioengineering

Our Team

Dr. Rabinovitch is proud to lead a team of talented individuals working together to advance cardiopulmonary research.

Marlene Rabinovitch, MD Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatrics, Cardiology Director, Basic Science and Engineering (BASE) Initiative, Betty Irene Moore Children's Heart Center

Richard D. Bland, MD Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics - Neonatal and Developmental Medicine

Michal Bental Roof, PhD Academic and Research Program Officer, Rabinovitch Lab and BASE

Nicole Navarro, PhD Research Project Manager

Hadley Bickford, BS, RVT BASE Operations Manager

Lingli Wang, MD Basic Life Research Scientist Lab Manager

Kamakshi Dattatray Bichu Life Science Research Professional 1

Yuxi Zhang Basic Life Science Research Professional 1

Aiqin Cao, PhD Life Science Research Professional 4

Patricia A. del Rosario, BSN, RN, PHN Clinical Research Coordinator 2

Chongyang Zhang, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow

Yapeng Liu, MD, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow

Mauro Lago-Docampo, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow

Olga Pushkarev, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint with Jesse Engreitz' Lab, Genetics

Jeonghyun Son, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint with Mark Skylar-Scott's Lab, Bioengineering

Marlene Rabinovitch, MD
Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatrics, Cardiology

Director, Basic Science and Engineering (BASE) Initiative,
Betty Irene Moore Children's Heart Center

Richard D. Bland, MD
Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics - Neonatal and Developmental Medicine

Michal Bental Roof, PhD
Academic and Research Program Officer, Rabinovitch Lab and BASE

Nicole Navarro, PhD
Research Project Manager

Hadley Bickford, BS, RVT
BASE Operations Manager

Lingli Wang, MD
Basic Life Research Scientist
Lab Manager

Kamakshi Dattatray Bichu
Life Science Research Professional 1

Yuxi Zhang
Basic Life Science Research Professional 1

Aiqin Cao, PhD
Life Science Research Professional 4

Patricia A. del Rosario, BSN, RN, PHN
Clinical Research Coordinator 2

Chongyang Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Yapeng Liu, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Mauro Lago-Docampo, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Olga Pushkarev, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint with Jesse Engreitz' Lab, Genetics

Jeonghyun Son, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint with Mark Skylar-Scott's Lab, Bioengineering