Knight Initiative Funded Researchers

Karl Deisseroth is the D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard, his PhD from Stanford, and his MD from Stanford. He also completed postdoctoral training, medical internship, and adult psychiatry residency at Stanford, and he is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Inma Cobos is a physician scientist recently recruited to Stanford in the Department of Pathology. She is a neuropathologist and neuroscientist with expertise in neurodegeneration.

Wah Chiu is a pioneer in methodology development for cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). His work has made multiple transformational contributions in developing single particle cryo-EM as a tool for the structural determination of molecular machines at atomic resolution. His lab has solved many cryo-EM structures including viruses, chaperonins, membrane proteins, ion channels, antigen-antibody complexes, protein-RNA complexes and RNA in collaboration with many scientists around the world.

Axel Brunger, Ph.D., is at Stanford University, where he is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Brunger is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Early in his career, Brunger developed tools for interpreting X-ray crystallography diffraction data that revolutionized structural calculation.

Dr. Brunet is interested in the molecular mechanisms of aging and longevity, with a particular emphasis on the nervous system. Her lab is interested in identifying pathways involved in delaying aging in response to external stimuli such as availability of nutrients and mates. She also seeks to understand the mechanisms that influence the rejuvenation of old stem cells. Finally, her lab has pioneered the naturally short-lived African killifish as a new model to explore the regulation of aging and age-related diseases.

Carolyn Bertozzi is the Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Radiology at Stanford University, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1988 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1993. After completing postdoctoral work at UCSF in the field of cellular immunology, she joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996.