Stanford SPARK Program
Academic department combining chemical biology and systems and quantitative approaches to study molecular and systems-level mechanisms of cellular function and disease. Activities include interdisciplinary basic and translational research (genetics, chemistry, cell biology, computation), advanced imaging and single-molecule methods, development of chemical probes and therapeutic modalities, and a translational program that provides mentorship, pilot funding, and commercialization support to advance academic discoveries toward preclinical and clinical development.
Industries
N/A
Nr. of Employees
small (1-50)
Products
RTSL Shading System
A real-time shader language and compilation system providing executable versions for Win32 and Linux with support for multiple code generators including register-combiner and NVIDIA backends.
BrookGPU
A compiler and runtime implementation of the Brook stream programming language for modern graphics hardware, designed for general-purpose programming on GPUs.
BRCC
BRCC is a source-to-source compiler that takes in Brook (.br) files and produces C++ files that can be fed through a standard C++ compiler for GPU execution.
Fetchcosts
Fetchcosts is a bandwidth analysis test tool that generates shaders to reveal the cost and instruction count of texture fetches in a variety of access patterns.
Babel Shader
BabelShader is a translation tool designed to convert between DirectX HLSL output, pixelshader 2.0, and OpenGL's low level shading languages, allowing OpenGL programs to use Microsoft's stand alone HLSL compiler.
WebChucK IDE
A web-based integrated development environment for ChucK and ChuGL supporting audiovisual programming and real-time execution in the browser.
RTSL Shading System
A real-time shader language and compilation system providing executable versions for Win32 and Linux with support for multiple code generators including register-combiner and NVIDIA backends.
BrookGPU
A compiler and runtime implementation of the Brook stream programming language for modern graphics hardware, designed for general-purpose programming on GPUs.
BRCC
BRCC is a source-to-source compiler that takes in Brook (.br) files and produces C++ files that can be fed through a standard C++ compiler for GPU execution.
Fetchcosts
Fetchcosts is a bandwidth analysis test tool that generates shaders to reveal the cost and instruction count of texture fetches in a variety of access patterns.
Babel Shader
BabelShader is a translation tool designed to convert between DirectX HLSL output, pixelshader 2.0, and OpenGL's low level shading languages, allowing OpenGL programs to use Microsoft's stand alone HLSL compiler.
WebChucK IDE
A web-based integrated development environment for ChucK and ChuGL supporting audiovisual programming and real-time execution in the browser.
Services
Mentorship, cohort education, and pilot grant funding to advance university-affiliated projects from discovery through preclinical de-risking and commercialization readiness; includes industry volunteer coaching and advisory support alongside modest seed funding.
Ph.D. courses, bootcamps, seminar series and postdoctoral training programs covering experimental methods, imaging, computational modeling and practical topics in drug discovery and translational research.
Coordination of departmental lectureships, visiting professorships, symposia and retreat events to disseminate research advances and foster collaboration.
Mentorship, cohort education, and pilot grant funding to advance university-affiliated projects from discovery through preclinical de-risking and commercialization readiness; includes industry volunteer coaching and advisory support alongside modest seed funding.
Ph.D. courses, bootcamps, seminar series and postdoctoral training programs covering experimental methods, imaging, computational modeling and practical topics in drug discovery and translational research.
Coordination of departmental lectureships, visiting professorships, symposia and retreat events to disseminate research advances and foster collaboration.
Expertise Areas
- Chemical biology
- Systems and quantitative biology
- Drug discovery and medicinal chemistry
- Translational research and commercialization support
Key Technologies
- Genome sequencing and genome editing
- AAV-mediated genome editing
- Single-molecule imaging
- Super-resolution microscopy (SIM, STED, STORM/PALM)
News & Updates
Calls for proposals open for pilot grants supporting translational projects; program accepts proposals from university affiliates and evaluates scope of unmet need, novelty and feasibility.
Scheduled departmental seminars and community events including Cutting Lecture and regular seminar series.
Research article describing mechanisms that protect polyglutamine proteins from assembly formation (Cell, 2025).
Study of small-molecule inhibitors targeting the Hedgehog signaling pathway (ChemistryOpen, 2025).
Identification of a targetable cysteine in a mitochondrial fission protein with relevance to oxidative-stress induced dysfunction (Nat Commun, 2025).
Application of transfer learning and computational models to study transcription factor dosage responses (Cell Genomics, 2025).
Calls for proposals open for pilot grants supporting translational projects; program accepts proposals from university affiliates and evaluates scope of unmet need, novelty and feasibility.
Scheduled departmental seminars and community events including Cutting Lecture and regular seminar series.
Research article describing mechanisms that protect polyglutamine proteins from assembly formation (Cell, 2025).
Study of small-molecule inhibitors targeting the Hedgehog signaling pathway (ChemistryOpen, 2025).
Identification of a targetable cysteine in a mitochondrial fission protein with relevance to oxidative-stress induced dysfunction (Nat Commun, 2025).
Application of transfer learning and computational models to study transcription factor dosage responses (Cell Genomics, 2025).