The Ashley lab is focused on the science of precision medicine. Our two biggest areas of interest are AI and the human genome. We are deeply interested in extremes, both of human performance (e.g. elite athletes) and in comparative biology (e.g. gorillas or blue whales). We are fascinated by the heart—how it develops, adapts, contracts, and fails. In our wet lab, we sequence genomes and build analytic tools to better understand the genome. We also explore cardiac biology, from the whole heart all the way down to single cells including induced pluripotent stem cells from our patients. We push them towards a cardiac myocyte fate and characterize them using a variety of bioengineering approaches.
Developing new diagnostics and therapeutics for humans is a near term goal and several of our discoveries have led to startup companies. Our group is one of the most diverse on campus—from mathematicians to molecular biologists, undergrads to junior faculty, physicists to genetic counselors, and from many countries around the world. We enjoy this diversity and love to work and play together. See our website for more details http://ashleylab.stanford.edu.