Phyllis Gardner

Phyllis I. Gardner (born July 7, 1950) is a Professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She has previously served as Dean of Education. Gardner was one of the first people to be skeptical of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos.

Gardner completed her bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois, where she specialised in biology. She studied at Harvard University Medical School and graduated in 1976. She has held a license to practise medicine in California since 1979. She completed research fellowships at Columbia University and University College London. She was a postdoctoral fellow at University College London in 1982. Gardner trained in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She was a Chief Resident at the Stanford School of Medicine. In 2002 Gardner argued for a merger of University College London and Imperial College London.

Gardner joined Stanford University in 1984. Gardner works on cardiac arrhythmias and cystic fibrosis pathogenesis. In 1998 Gardner was appointed Senior Associate Dean for Education and Student Affairs at Stanford University. She is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacology. She led a laboratory that focused on ion channel biophysics.

Entrepreneurship

After spending ten years in academia, Gardner became interested in research and development and entrepreneurship. She developed several forms of slow released medication, including an adaptation for retention in the stomach. Gardner has been involved with several start-ups in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. From 1996 to 1998 Gardner served as Vice President of Research and Head of the Technology Institute at the Alza Corporation. Gardner served as Director of the biopharmaceutical company Revance Therapeutics from 2007 to 2018. She is an adjunct partner at Essex WoodlandsHealth Ventures. She founded several companies, including the Genomics Collaborative, SKOLAR and the CambriaTech Holding Co. She was appointed to the Board Of Directors of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals in 2006. Gardner serves on the Board of Fellows of the Harvard Medical School. She was appointed to the Board of Directors of CohBar, a clinical stage biotechnology company, in 2019.

In 2002 Elizabeth Holmes visited Gardner at Stanford University. Holmes proposed her idea for a microfluidic device that could detect and treat infectious diseases. Gardner was critical of the proposal, explaining that it is not possible to use antibiotics on such a small scale. Holmes dropped out of Stanford a few months later, but Gardner followed the evolution of Theranos. Gardner did not permit Holmes to visit the Stanford campus and called for her to be sent to prison.

Selected publications

• Gardner, Phyllis (1997-03-28). "Nuclear Export of NF-ATc Enhanced by Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3". Science. 275 (5308): 1930–1933. doi:10.1126/science.275.5308.1930. PMID 9072970.
• Gardner, Phyllis (1987). "Ion channels activated by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate in plasma membrane of human T-lymphocytes". Nature. 326 (6110): 301–304. doi:10.1038/326301a0. PMID 2434867.
• Gardner, Phyllis (1995). "Activation of dual T cell signaling pathways by the chemokine RANTES". Science. 269 (5231): 1727–1730. doi:10.1126/science.7569902. PMID 7569902.