Thomas Rando is Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford where he is the Director of the Glenn Laboratories for the Biology of Aging. He is also Chief of Neurology and Director of the Rehabilitation Research & Development Center of Excellence at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. He is a founding director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic at the Stanford Medical Center. Research in the Rando laboratory focuses on tissue-specific stem cells in aging and disease, and on pathogenetic mechanisms and gene therapy for muscular dystrophies. His research on aging has demonstrated that it is possible to identify biochemical stimuli that can induce stem cells in old tissues to repair injuries as effectively as in young tissues, and this work has broad implications for the fields of regenerative medicine and stem cell transplantation.
He is a member of several professional societies, including the American Neurological Association. He is a former Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar in Aging awarded by the American Federation for Aging Research and a former Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Aging. In 2005, he received an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for his groundbreaking research in stem cell biology. He received a BA from Harvard College, MD from Harvard Medical School and PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University.