Current Trainees

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.