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Avnesh Thakor

Avnesh S Thakor

Associate Professor - University Medical Line, Radiology - Pediatric Radiology
Member, Bio-X
Member, Cardiovascular Institute
Member, Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI)
Member, Stanford Cancer Institute
Member, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Fellowship: University of Toronto (2015) Canada
Fellowship: University Of British Columbia (2014) Canada
Board Certification: Royal College of Radiologist, Diagnostic Radiology (2012)
Internship: University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine (2008) England
Medical Education: University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine (2006) England
BA, University of Cambridge, Physiology (2001)
MA, University of Cambridge, Physiology (2005)
MB BChir, University of Cambridge, Medicine (2006)
PhD, University of Cambridge, Fetal Cardiovascular Physiology (2006)
FHEA, Higher Education Academy, Teaching (2009)
MSc, University of London, Cancer Therapeutics (2010)
FRCR(IR), Royal College of Radiologists, Radiology (Interventional Radiology sub-specialization) (2012)
MD, University of Cambridge/Stanford University, Molecular Imaging and Nanotechnology (2013)
Fellowship, University of Cambridge - Addenbrookes Hospital, Adult Interventional Radiology (2013)
Fellowship, University of British Columbia - Vancouver General Hospital, Adult Interventional Radiology (2014)
Fellowship, University of Toronto - SickKids Hospital, Pediatric Interventional Radiology (2015)
Affiliation:
Dr Thakor is adult and pediatric-certified Interventional Radiologist, and Physician-Scientist, who practices at Stanford University.

He runs and directs a translational laboratory at Stanford University called Interventional Radiology Innovation at Stanford (IRIS). His vision is to develop the area of "Precision Delivery" in which targeted delivery approaches are used to locally deliver drug, gene, cell and cell-free therapies directly to organs using image-guided endovascular (i.e. within blood vessels), percutaneous (i.e. through the skin), endoluminal (i.e. within the bowel, respiratory or urinary system), and even using device implantation (i.e. bioscaffolds) approaches.

His work focuses on using Precision Delivery strategies to ensure mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and their extracellular vesicles (EVs), can be delivered directly to target tissues or are coupled directly with target cells using novel bioscaffolds. His team works on the pancreas (for diabetes), kidney (for acute kidney injury), brain (for neurodegenerative conditions), lungs (for acute respiratory distress syndrome) and skin (for wound healing). They have also been investigating the use of focused ultrasound to modulate the microenvironment of injured tissues for stem cell homing and stimulating intrinsic tissue regeneration. In other work, his team are investigating the intrinsic molecular and regenerative signatures of mesenchymal stem cell therapies using genomic and proteomic profiling, and how these can be changed using focused ultrasound priming approaches.

As a physician-scientist, Dr Thakor also makes sure that these innovations (i.e. technologies, therapies and devices) are effectively translated from the benchtop to the beside and to that effect, he is a PI and Co-I on several clinical trials.


CLINICAL FOCUS:
Interventional Radiology - Pediatric and Adult
Medical Devices

ACADEMIC FOCUS:
Precision Delivery
Focused Ultrasound
Cell Therapy
Mesenchymal stem cells and their derived extracellular vesicles
Bioscaffolds
Microenvironment Modulation

SUBJECT FOCUS:
Pancreas Regeneration and Islet Transplantation
Kidney Regeneration
Brain Regeneration
Liver Regeneration
Skin Regeneration
Solid Organ Tumors


https://www.stanfordiris.com/