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Researchers have developed an iPhone app to study peripheral STANFORD artery disease. Page 4 INSIDE Volume 8, No. 17MEDICINE September 26, 2016 Published by the Office of Communication & Public Affairs $600 million health research effort launches TYLER MaLLORY Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Priscilla in both sophisticated tools and an unprecedented Bay Area-wide funds collaboration between university collaboration that will enable Stanford, UCSF, UC-Berkeley groundbreaking discovery.” Former Stanford President John Hen- By Amy Adams nessy, PhD, was instrumental in helping establish the initiative, working closely tanford will be one of three Bay with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative on Area universities — along with its inception. He will serve on the board Sthe University of California-San in his personal capacity as a scientist and Francisco and the University of Califor- technologist. nia-Berkeley — to participate in a new “The vision for the Chan Zuckerberg bioscience collaboration funded through Initiative and the Biohub capitalizes on a $600 million commitment by the the strengths of our Bay Area universi- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. ties, and also makes a major investment Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in early-stage research of the type that and his wife Priscilla Chan, MD, created cannot be readily funded elsewhere,” the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative after the Hennessy said. “It is large-scale collabo- birth of their daughter in 2015. On Sept. ration at its best, and with tremendous 21, the Initiative announced plans for a promise for solving the world’s greatest broader focus on science, its second ma- health challenges.” jor initiative, alongside work to improve Resident Biohub scientists will work education for all students. The Chan on two large-scale overarching projects: Zuckerberg Initiative’s goal is to cure, The Cell Atlas, a comprehensive data set prevent or manage all diseases by the end cataloging all the biologically significant of the century by accelerating basic sci- characteristics of every cell type in the ence research. The Initiative seeks to sup- body, and an Infectious Disease Proj- port new ways of enabling scientists and Stephen Quake (left) and Joseph DeRisi walk through Quake’s laboratory at Stanford. The two scientists ect, devoted to tackling microbial dis- engineers to work together to build new will be co-directors of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. eases, including emerging biothreats and tools that will empower the whole scien- pandemics. tific community and advance progress. phen Quake, PhD, Stanford professor of These hubs will establish shared biotech- Technology to improve health The new Bay Area research collabora- bioengineering and of applied physics, nology platforms and make them avail- tion, called the Chan Zuckerberg Bio- who will co-lead the Biohub with Joseph able to members of the collaborating Each of the three partner schools has hub, is the first scientific investment by DeRisi, PhD, professor and chair of bio- universities. a long history of developing biomedical the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. It will chemistry and biophysics at UCSF. “This initiative will dramatically im- technologies, with combined strengths include a combination of grants, research Collaborative approach to research prove our ability to conduct fundamen- in medicine, engineering and the basic space focused on biotechnology-tool de- tal research at the intersection of biology sciences. New opportunities created by velopment, and large-scale collaborative The Biohub will be an independent and engineering that can lead to impor- the Biohub will focus the universities’ projects. research organization with two locations, tant applications for human health,” said individual strengths around the com- “The Biohub will be the sinew that a headquarters in the San Francisco Mis- Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, mon goal of developing technologies to ties together these three institutions in sion Bay district and an outstation at PhD, who is a neuroscientist. “We are cure and prevent human disease, said the Bay Area like never before,” said Ste- Stanford known as the Stanford Biohub. grateful for the investment by Mark Tessier-Lavigne. See BIOHUB, page 6 Leadership reflects Iron nanoparticles make immune cells on Stanford Medicine attack cancer, according to new study accomplishments, By Erin Digitale could complement existing cancer treatments. The dis- covery, described in a paper published online today in looks to the future Iron nanoparticles can activate the immune system Nature Nanotechnology, was made by accident while By Kathy Zonana to attack cancer cells, according to a study led by re- testing whether the nanoparticles could serve as Trojan searchers at the School of Medicine. horses by sneaking chemotherapy into tumors in mice. Calling it “a time for us to come together and reflect The nanoparticles, which are commercially available “It was really surprising to us that the nanoparticles on where we are today and the exciting opportunities as the injectable iron supplement ferumoxytol, are ap- activated macrophages so that they started to attack that we have moving forward,” School of Medicine proved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat cancer cells in mice,” said Heike Daldrup-Link, MD, Dean Lloyd Minor, MD, kicked off the first State of iron deficiency anemia. who is the study’s senior author and an associate profes- Stanford Medicine event on Sept. 22 before an over- The mouse study found that ferumoxytol prompts sor of radiology at the School of Medicine. “We think flow crowd of faculty, staff and students. immune cells called tumor-associated macrophages to this concept should hold in human patients, too.” The event at the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning destroy cancer cells, suggesting that the nanoparticles Daldrup-Link’s team See IRON, page 6 and Knowledge included an address by the dean fol- lowed by a panel discussion with David Entwistle, AMY THOMAS president and CEO of Stanford Health Care; Chris- topher Dawes, president and CEO of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and Stanford Children’s Health; and Minor. Megan Mahoney, MD, a clinical associate professor of medicine, moderated the panel. Accomplishments of the past year Standing in front of a screen listing several of the past year’s accomplishments in research, education and teaching, Minor quipped, “This slide is already out of date, and we just made it yesterday.” The number of faculty who had won major international awards had grown by one overnight, with assistant professor of bioengineering Manu Prakash, PhD, being named the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” Among the year’s See STANFORD MEDICINE, page 6 A mouse study found that ferumoxytol prompts immune cells called tumor-associated macrophages to destroy cancer cells. School’s Grant Writing Academy honored with AAMC award By Becky Bach and postdoctoral scholars write some of the most com- class at the academy, and in the days before the deadline Success as a professional scientist is increasingly de- mon grants offered by the National Institutes of Health we helped each other as proofreaders.” termined by the ability to secure funding. Yet grant and the National Science Foundation, they are welcome So far, the academy has worked with about 180 stu- writing — the nitty-gritty work of distilling ideas into a to use it to apply for any bioscience grant, Botham said. dents and trainees, Botham said. She attributes its suc- winning pitch — is rarely taught in graduate school or Proposal boot camp cess, in part, to its use of peer mentors. “Peer feedback postdoctoral training. is really valued. There’s only one of me, and I can’t read Recognizing this gap, Stanford Biosciences launched Chandramouli Chandrasekaran, PhD, a postdoc- 100 grants, but I can train grant coaches to work with the Grant Writing Academy in 2014. Though young, toral scholar in neurosciences and electrical engineer- 100 postdocs or graduate students,” she said. the program has already boosted the number of both ing, turned to the Grant Writing Academy for assistance Lamia Wahba, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in pa- grant submissions and funded grants, said its director, applying for a NIH Pathway to Independence Award thology, is one of the academy’s grant coaches. She said Crystal Botham, PhD. It recently earned national rec- from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders the academy has helped her refine her own grants, but it ognition as well: It was honored as the third-prize win- and Stroke. The grant can provide up to five years of has also taught her a lot about teaching. Teaching writ- ner of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ funding, but it demands as many as 30 documents ing is quite different from teaching genetics, she said. Innovations in Research Education Award. that need to be nearly perfect, Chandrasekaran said. It requires trainees to examine their research critically, Though the program specializes in helping students That seemed a bit overwhelming, so he attended the she said. NORBERT VON DER GROEBEN academy’s proposal boot ‘You become a better scientist’ camp, a two-month course that meets weekly and “By being able to write and articulate your research walks a cohort of gradu- goals, you become a better scientist,” said Botham. ate students and postdocs And some of the most common mistakes inexpe- through each step of the rienced grant writers make? Many make assumptions grant-application process. about what the reviewers know, Wahba said. Even ex- The boot camp helped perts in the field may not be familiar with new or un- Chandrasekaran, who usual techniques, she said. In addition, beginning grant studies the neural mecha- writers often struggle to keep their writing concise and nisms underlying decision- to resist the temptation to include every detail, she said. making in primates, secure “The big take-home lesson is we weren’t taught one of the coveted awards. enough about writing about science,” Wahba said.

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