Six professors elected to the National Academy of Medicine

The National Academy of Medicine has elected six professors at Stanford University to its membership.

They are among the 90 regular members and 10 international members elected this year to the academy, which provides policymakers, professionals, business leaders and the public with independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on issues related to health and the biomedical sciences.

New members are elected by current members through a process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health.

Grace Lee, MD, professor of pediatrics and associate chief medical officer of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, was elected for “being an authority on vaccine policy, vaccine safety, and infectious disease policy,” according to the academy. “Her work … has helped guide national decisions, including phasing of COVID-19 vaccine implementation.”

Crystal Mackall, MD, Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor, professor of pediatrics and medicine, and founding director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, was elected for “pioneering immune therapies for children’s cancers and for discovering fundamental principles of human immunology and translating these insights into cutting-edge engineered cell therapies for cancer.”

Paul Mischel, MD, professor and vice chair for research in the pathology department, was elected for “his paradigm-shifting research on extrachromosomal DNA, which has opened a new field in cancer biology with profound implications for non-Mendelian disease genetics and the impact of altered genome architecture. His pioneering research has provided seminal insight into the molecular pathogenesis of brain cancer, revealing a landscape of actionable drug targets.”

Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and of pediatrics, director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, and the Naddisy Foundation Professor in Pediatric Food Allergy, Immunology and Asthma, was elected “for leadership in studies of climate change and health, drawing on expertise in immunology, genetics, environmental sciences, allergy and asthma. Her pioneering research that environmental exposures modify immune cell genes linked to health effects is leading to new policies as well as therapeutic and prevention strategies.”

Anthony Oro, MD, PhD, a professor of dermatology, the Eugene and Gloria Bauer Professor of Dermatology, and the co-director of the Stanford Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine and of the Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute, was elected for “solidifying the first link between Hedgehog signaling and human cancer and building chromatin maps identifying how environmental factors drive tumor epigenetic plasticity and drug-resistance. He built developmental chromatin maps to uncover disease mechanisms and enable clinical manufacturing of pluripotent cell-derived tissues for incurable skin diseases.”

Krishna Shenoy, PhD, professor of electrical engineering and the Hong Seh and Vivian W.M. Lim Professor, was elected for “making seminal contributions both to basic neuroscience and to translational and clinical research. His work has shown how networks of motor cortical neurons operate as dynamical systems, and he has developed new technologies to provide new means of restoring movement and communication to people with paralysis.”