Transformative gift advances biomedical ethics at Stanford Medicine

The Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics has been renamed the Laurie J. Girand Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford in recognition of a foundational gift made to the School of Medicine by Laurie J. Girand and her husband, Scott A. McGregor.

The center was established more than 25 years ago to navigate the complex ethical considerations that arise at the intersection of medicine, technology and society. With the advent of artificial intelligence, burgeoning medical device innovation and increasingly difficult ethical considerations at the bedside, this gift will help Stanford Medicine accelerate the application of biomedical ethics in medical research and patient care. The gift will also help expand the center’s educational offerings to students across Stanford University and foster new collaborations with industry to cultivate a deeper understanding of ethical implications across the health care landscape.

“I’m deeply grateful to Laurie Girand and Scott McGregor for generously supporting our biomedical ethics faculty and leadership,” said Stanford University President Jonathan Levin, PhD. “I’m thrilled that their gift will support the faculty and students at Stanford to think rigorously and deeply about the ethical implications of their work, and to share their thinking with the world.” 

Located in Silicon Valley, the Laurie J. Girand Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford also serves as a consultative arm to industry inventors, academic researchers and clinicians, guiding the ethical application of technology in medical device and therapeutics development.

“Never has the role of biomedical ethics been so important and so pervasive — touching modern issues in medicine such as artificial intelligence in health care, the equitable distribution of scarce resources and the safe development of pathbreaking new technologies,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Professor for the Dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at Stanford University. “This generous commitment reflects a profound understanding that the future of medicine depends not only on what we can do, but on careful consideration of what we should do.”

Transforming and applying biomedical ethics today

The Girand Center is a leading interdisciplinary hub for faculty involved in biomedical ethics and medical humanities. Its faculty conduct research, apply ethical reasoning to moral issues in medicine, contribute to national and international policy discussions, and build a community of professionals dedicated to formulating effective responses to contemporary ethical issues. In recent years, Girand Center faculty have taught classes taken by nearly 40% of Stanford University undergraduates, in addition to biomedical ethics courses for PhD candidates, medical students and residents.

“As of 2026, researchers have invented incredibly powerful tools, including CRISPR and AI, that have the potential to treat and eliminate myriad adverse conditions afflicting humanity for thousands of years.  We are on the cusp of health care solutions that only previously could have been imagined,” Girand said.  “At the same time, these tools and technologies have the potential for misuse, misapplication and misdistribution with significant implications for humankind. We want to amplify the type of critical thinking and training that Stanford offers to ensure all of us and our descendants benefit from this progress.”

Girand, a community advocate, and McGregor, a retired technology executive, are both Stanford University alumni and longtime university volunteers. The family’s recent gift to the Girand Center will strengthen the center’s immediate and long-term impact.

“By expanding our efforts across campus and by working closely with industry, we can have a profound multiplier effect on the field — changing the nature of biomedical innovation by bringing much-needed alignment between the development of powerful technologies and the guardrails needed to ensure their ethical application in patient care and other areas,” said Holly K. Tabor, PhD, director of the Girand Center and a professor of primary care and population health. “This gift enables us to make longer-range, more ambitious plans for the future and to develop paradigm-shifting initiatives that will guide research and expand interdisciplinary collaborations.”

Stanford Medicine’s biomedical ethics faculty and GSK, a global biopharma company, have worked together on several research collaborations that have helped shape the company’s ethical approach to AI-focused initiatives for drug discovery and development.

“As AI becomes increasingly core to drug discovery and development, we recognize the moral imperative to develop AI responsibly according to the highest ethical standards,” said Kim Branson, senior vice president and global head of artificial intelligence and machine learning at GSK. “Working with leaders in the field at the Girand Center will allow us to remain at the forefront of issues in AI ethics, addressing critical questions around data governance and algorithmic transparency. Collaborations like this are key to our mission to build AI systems responsibly.”

Support for early-stage research

A cornerstone of the Girand Center will be the establishment of an ethics impact fund providing seed grants for high-risk, high-reward research — as well as new industry and university collaborations — with the goal of securing the early-phase data necessary to apply for institutional and outside funding on a larger scale. Grants will be awarded to interdisciplinary teams of investigators addressing highly visible topics such as the ethical, legal and social implications of AI; genetics and genomics; neurotechnology; and equitable care.

“There is simply not enough federal and public funding to support highly innovative and impactful research, particularly the kind that can respond to ethical challenges in biomedical research and innovation in real time,” said David Magnus, PhD, the Thomas A. Raffin Professor in Medicine and Biomedical Ethics, who served as director of the biomedical ethics center for 21 years. “This gift provides the sustainable funding needed to ensure that ethics remains embedded in innovation processes at Stanford and well beyond, ensuring the fair, equitable and just development of technologies that will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in medicine and health.”