Department: Bioengineering

I refer you to my web page for detailed list of interests, projects and publications. In addition to pressing the link here, you can search "Russ Altman" on http://www.google.com/

Biophysical mechanisms of host defense peptides and their mimics

The knottin family offers a diverse array of molecular scaffolds that can be engineered to guide imaging agents and drugs to sites of disease. My research focuses on using knottins as a platform to design targeted drug therapies, and I am studying the delivery characteristics of engineered knottin-drug conjugates in relevant disease models.

Molecular motors lie at the heart of biological processes from DNA replication to vesicle transport. My laboratory seeks to understand the physical mechanisms by which these nanoscale machines convert chemical energy into mechanical work.

Professor Carter studies the influence of mechanical loading upon the growth, development, regeneration, and aging of skeletal tissues. Basic information from such studies is used to understand skeletal diseases and treatments. He has served as President of the Orthopaedic Research Society and is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Molecular Bioengineering, Protein Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Cell and Tissue Engineering, Molecular Imaging

Our focus is on building computational models of complex biological processes, and using them to guide an experimental program. Such an approach leads to a relatively rapid identification and validation of previously unknown components and interactions. Biological systems of interest include metabolic, regulatory and signaling networks as well as cell-cell interactions. Current research involves the dynamic behavior of NF-kappaB, an important family of transcription factors.

Research in Dr. Deisseroth's laboratory focuses on developing optical, molecular and cellular tools to observe, perturb, and re-engineer brain circuits. His laboratory is based in the James H. Clark Center at Stanford and has developed optogenetic and tissue engineering methods, employing techniques spanning electrophysiology, molecular biology, optics, neural activity imaging, animal behavior, and computational neural network modeling.

Experimental and computational approaches to study human movement. Development of biomechanical models to analyze muscle function, study movement abnormalities, design new medical products, and guide surgery. Testing of new computational models of human movement with medical image data and experimental measurements.

Research interests include (1) computer simulation and modeling of cardiovascular physiology with specific attention paid to congenital heart disease and its treatment, (2) development and testing of transcatheter therapies for the treatment of congenital heart disease, and (3) the evaluation and treatment of pulmonary hypertension/pulmonary vascular disease.

My laboratory focuses on merging advances in molecular biology with those in biomedical imaging to advance the new field of molecular imaging. Methods to image gene expression in living subjects have been developed. Newer approaches to image fundamental cellular events with optical and radiolabeled probes are under active investigation. These imaging approaches are expected to have a fundamental impact in the study of cancer biology, as well as in molecular therapeutics including gene therapy

My primary focus is application of new MR imaging technology to musculoskeletal problems. Current projects include: Rapid MRI for Osteoarthritis, Weight-bearing cartilage imaging with MRI, and MRI-based models of muscle. We are studing the application of new MR imaging techniques such as rapid imaging, real-time imaging, and short echo time imaging to learn more about biomechanics and pathology of bones and joints.

As an academic orthopaedic surgeon, my interests center on adult reconstructive surgery, arthritis surgery, joint replacement, biomaterials, biocompatibility, tissue engineering, mesenchymal stem cells. Collaborative clinical, applied and basic research studies are ongoing.

I am interested in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications including cardiovascular, abdominal, breast and musculoskeletal imaging. These applications require development of faster and more efficient MRI methods that provide improved diagnostic contrast compared with current methods. My work includes novel excitation schemes, efficient imaging methods and reconstruction tools. Please see my research site (above) for most up-to-date information.

My research is on the design and construction of synthetic viral genomes to address a range of important questions in bioengineering and biotechnology. Building synthetic phage genomes has been hampered in the past by the extreme toxicity of these viruses to E. coli. I recently developed a method that solves this problem by using yeast as a platform to assemble phage genomes. Using this method I have decompressed the phiX174 genome and showed the virus is fully functional without gene overlaps.

Surgical Innovation, Simulation and Virtual Reality in Surgical Education, Fetal Healing-Cellular and Biochemical Mechanisms

I am the Director for Simbios (http://simbios.stanford.edu), the National Center for Physics-Based Simulations of Biological Structures. The Center is funded by the NIH. In addition to the research we conduct on a diverse range of structures -- from molecules to musculoskeletal systems -- the Center provides both software and training opportunities. We also support Simtk.org (http://simtk.org), a web portal for collaborating on and publicly sharing biocomputational projects, and the Biomedical Computation Review magazine (http://biomedicalcomputationreview.org/).

computational simulation of cardiac disease: heart failure, left ventricular remodeling, electrophysiology, excitation-contraction coupling, atrial and ventricular fibrillation, computer-guided surgical planning, patient-specific simulation