Kimberly Trevino, PhD

Program Area: Chemistry of Molecular Probes

Mentor: Jianghong Rao, PhD
SMIS Fellowship: (3/1/2024 - 2/28/2027)

Kimberly received her PhD in Chemistry at UC Davis under the mentorship of Dr. Angelique Louie. Her graduate work focused on synthesizing a series of spiropyran derivatives that were utilized as sensors for the detection of copper(II), glutathione or as an activatable contrast agent for MRI. At Stanford, she is working under the guidance of Dr. Jianghong Rao, where she is developing an 18F-labeled α-fucosidase-sensitive nanoaggregation PET tracer for senescence imaging.

Abraham Moses, PhD

Program Area:

Mentor: Corinne Beinat, PhD
SMIS Fellowship: (2/1/2024 - 1/31/2027)

Abraham joined the Beinat lab as a postdoc in June 2023 after earning a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Oregon State University under the guidance of Dr. Oleh Taratula and Dr. Olena Taratula. The primary focus of his research was investigating the use of polymeric nanoparticles encapsulating photothermal NIR dyes in diagnosing and treating female reproductive diseases and disorders including endometriosis and ectopic pregnancy. Other areas of focus included the use of lipid nanoparticles for delivery of therapeutic mRNA to increase lean muscle mass and induce appetite in mouse models of cancer cachexia. At Stanford, Abraham is currently working on the development of PET radiotracers that could be used to gauge the effectiveness of novel ferroptosis-based treatments for glioma.

Madeleine Landry, PhD

Program Areas: Therapeutic Applications of Molecular Imaging, including Cancer Immunotherapy and Theranostics

Mentors: Corinne Beinat, PhD and Andrei Iagaru, MD
SMIS Fellowship: (4/1/2023 - 3/31/2026)

Madeleine received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Oregon State University. Her Ph.D. research focused on development of nanoparticle formulations for drug delivery of x-ray radiosensitizing cancer therapies, including micellar delivery of PARP and PI3K inhibitors and lipid nanoparticle delivery of mRNA. In the Beinat lab at Stanford Madeleine is working on the discovery of peptides for targeted radionuclide therapy using phage display.  

Irene Lim, PhD

Program Area: In Vivo Molecular Imaging

Mentors: Jianghong Rao, PhD and Craig Levin, PhD
SMIS Fellowship: (1/16/2023 - 1/15/2026)

Irene received her Ph. D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2022. Her graduate work focused on developing chemical tools to study perfluorocarbons in living systems. She developed a palette of fluorous-soluble polymethine fluorophores, loaded nanoemulsions, and used fluorescence imaging to gain a deeper appreciation for how chemical changes to nanoformulations impact the biodistribution in mice. Under the mentorship of Prof. Jianghong Rao at Stanford, she plans to extend this interdisciplinary work towards understanding the immune response in tumors using PET and shortwave infrared fluorescence imaging.

Hieu Thi Minh Nguyen, PhD

Program Areas: In Vivo Molecular Imaging, Including Cell Tracking

Mentors: Guillem Pratx, PhD and Ramasamy Paulmurugan, PhD
SMIS Fellowship: (1/1/2023 - 12/31/2025)

Hieu received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Her Ph.D. research focused on optical-based interventions for early-stage cancer detection and therapy, including work with fiber-based spectroscopy devices for tumor resection guidance and application of ns high-energy laser pulse to induce immunogenic cell death in breast cancer cells. At Stanford, she is currently developing methods for tracking single cells in vivo with PET under the mentorship of Prof. Guillem Pratx.

Parivash Moradifar, PhD

Program Areas: Molecular Imaging Instrumentation and Computations and Therapeutic Applications of Molecular Imaging, including Cancer Immunotherapy and Theranostics

Mentors: Jennifer Dionne, PhD and Craig Levin, PhD
SMIS Fellowship: (8/1/2021 - 7/31/2024)

Parivash received her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering in 2020 from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) under guidance of Prof. Nasim Alem. During her PhD she worked on modulation, characterization, and nanoscale visualization of plasmonic responses in 3D extended metalattice nanostructures and 2D topological insulator heterostructures as next generation plasmonic platforms. She used a range of in-situ electron microscopy techniques combined with low-loss electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and atomic resolution scanning/transmission electron microscopy (HRSTEM) to identify the impact of physical and chemical tunning pathways including strain, defects, interconnectivity, and structural confinement on plasmonic enhancements. At Stanford, she is working with Prof. Jennifer Dionne and Prof. Craig Levin and she is interested in developing new nanophotonic metamaterial platforms and multimodal microscopies for next-generation cancer medical imaging and diagnostics.