Alexander J. Stokes, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Area of Expertise ~ Ion channel regulation of diseases
Email: astokes@hawaii.edu
Phone: +1 808-692-1633
Biography: Dr. Stokes started their career at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London UK, working on novel imaging technology, under Nobel prize winner Dr. Paul Nurse. After this they were recruited to Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, where their interest in calcium imaging and molecular physiology started, producing high impact articles. After Harvard, Dr. Stokes was recruited to help start a new research institute at the Queens Medical Center, Honolulu where their research centered on ion channels, with emphasis on the TRPV1, TRPV2 and TRPA1 ion channels. Since 2007, Dr. Stokes has been faculty at JABSOM, UH, where they were able to move from in vitro biology to in vivo disease modeling. This yielded not only good papers, but patents, and a startup company. More recently, Dr. Stokes has moved to use in vitro, and in silico research, as well as undertaking collaborative team science projects. In 2021 Dr. Stokes was awarded an NSF-BSCER grant to study data science, and they are involved in half a dozen other funded Data Science efforts in the state of Hawaii, including Data Science NSF-SSTEM programs; NSF-Cyber Infrastructure Training; NSF-INCLUDES in collaboration with TACC; AFRL/DOD funding in computational biophysical material science and visualization, and the Hawaiʻi NSF-EPSCOR program. Dr. Stokes participates in various University committees, and the UUH Faculty Senate, and have provided service to the University, as well as on external committees, locally, nationally, and internationally. Including federal study secCons at NIH and NSF.
As an intersex gender minority faculty member, Dr.Stokes has a particular interest in inclusion and equity for LGBTQI+ community. Dr.Stokes is an advocate for inclusive practices for the marginalized and underrepresented, and their status is also a reminder that for some populations being acknowledged to even exist is a necessary and yet untaken first step towards inclusion. In the words of Amanda Gorman, “this is the hill we climb.”
Research: Dr. Stokes undertakes research in three major areas: 1. The Biochemical, physiological and biophysical analysis of ion channels, their signaling, their regulation, and their involvement in various pathological diseases. Concentrating of the TRPV1 and TRPA1 ion channels. 2. Data Science research relating to health and biological data analytics, molecular modeling, and therapeutics discovery. 3. Data Science training, workforce development and educational research. Dr. Stokes is involved in a number of Data Science efforts in the state of Hawaii, including Data Science NSF-SSTEM programs; NSF-Cyber Infrastructure Training; NSF-INCLUDES in collaboration with TACC, which provides summer Data Science training experiences; AFRL/DOD funding in computational biophysical material science and visualization, and the NSF-EPSCOR grant.
Teaching: As well as teaching comparative physiology, special topics, and supervising Graduate students, Dr. Stokes is also preparing a new graduate certificate in “Health and PreMedical Sciences” within the CMB graduate Program aimed at pre-med students who wish to study, while applying for medical school.
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