Collaborators

Dr. Norton, Jeffrey is the Robert and Mary Ellenburg Professor Emeritus of Surgery. His research focuses on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in pancreatic cancer both in a mouse model and human patients using organoids to mimic the tumor microenvironment (TME). He has 429 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He works closely with Dr Longaker.

Foster, Deshka grew up outside of Philadelphia and came west to attend Stanford University for her undergraduate training where she graduated with honors in Human Biology. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study malarial disease in Malaysian Borneo, and subsequently earned an M.A. in African Studies from Stanford for malaria research in Tanzania. She completed her M.D. degree at the Drexel University College of Medicine prior to returning to Stanford for her General Surgery residency training. During her residency research years, she completed her Ph.D. in Cancer Biology in Dr. Longaker's laboratory through the Advanced Residency Training at Stanford (ARTS) Program with additional funding support from the American College of Surgeons as well as an NIH F32 award through the National Cancer Institute. Following residency, Deshka relocated to New York City to complete dual fellowship training in Complex General Surgical Oncology and Hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She was recruited back to join the Stanford Surgery faculty as an Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator in the Hagey Laboratory in 2025. Her laboratory research focuses primarily on cancer associated fibroblasts and tertiary lymphoid structure biology in pancreas and hepatobiliary malignancies. The other area of focus of her laboratory involves the biology and prevention of abdominal adhesions, which are scar tissue bands that can form in the abdomen following surgical procedures including those performed for cancer and can cause significant morbidity. Clinically, Deshka provides surgical care primarily for patients with pancreas and hepatobiliary cancers and hepatic artery infusion regional therapy. She lives in Palo Alto with her husband and her children Wolf and Kiana.