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Research

Publications & Research

Selected research output — my honors thesis and academic work. Papers and preprints will be added here as they come out.

  1. Influence of Early Life Adversity on Academic, Behavioral, and Health Outcomes at Elementary School

    journal

    Anjali Gupta, Maxwell Hartshorn, Leilani Ivery, Zoie Carter, Jesse Tapia, Harpreet Nijjer, Isaias Martinez, Cheryl Tolomeo, Cynthia R. Rovnaghi, Kanwaljeet J.S. Anand

    Academic Pediatrics, 2026

    A longitudinal follow-up study (N=189) of children first assessed at preschool age, examining whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and hair-based cortisol/oxytocin biomarkers measured in early childhood predict academic, behavioral, and health outcomes years later in elementary school. Greater ACE exposure was consistently and dose-dependently associated with worse outcomes across all three domains.

    Read the paper

  2. Hemodynamic Effects of Virtual Stenting in the Fontan Circulation at Rest and During Exercise

    Isaias Martinez

    B.S. Honors Thesis, Stanford University — Marsden Lab (advisor: Dr. Alison Marsden), 2026

    Patient-specific computational fluid dynamics study of how virtual stent placement alters Fontan hemodynamics — pressure drop and flow — at rest and during exercise, built with SimVascular modeling and simulation.

    PDF

  3. Liposome-Stabilized WNT3A Protein (L-WNT) Upregulates Adult Hepatic Stem Cells and Reduces Cell Death in Liver during Cold Preservation

    Isaias Martinez, Bo Liu, Fabiana Aellos, Amarissa Ramos, Marc L. Melcher, Joshua Badshah, Varvara A. Kirchner, Jill A. Helms

    Holman Research Day, Stanford Department of Surgery, 2024

    Studied L-WNT, a stabilized Wnt-pathway activator, as a liver pre-conditioning treatment to improve donor organ viability before transplantation. In mouse models, L-WNT treatment increased Wnt-responsive adult hepatic stem cells and reduced apoptotic cell death during cold storage, suggesting a potential way to improve outcomes for extended-criteria liver transplants.

    Read the abstract

  4. Exploring the Role of Wnt Signaling in the Liver

    Isaias Martinez, Greta Cywinska, Joshua Badshah, Melanie Marin, Danna Cruz, Fabiana Aellos, Bo Liu, Jill A. Helms, Varvara A. Kirchner

    MCHRI DRIVE Program — also presented at the 2024 MCHRI Symposium and Stanford SURPS, 2024

    Using lineage tracing in a Wnt-reporter mouse model, examined how adult Wnt-responsive hepatic stem cells respond to ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in the liver. Found a sharp rise in Wnt-responsive cells after injury without a matching increase in proliferation, suggesting IRI recruits hepatic cells into a Wnt-responsive state alongside an inflammatory response — a step toward understanding how the liver regenerates after injury.