Associate Professor
Stanford University
Dr Peter Santa Maria is a Stanford surgeon scientist born and raised in Perth, Australia with a subspecialty interest in Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery. He specializes in disorders affecting hearing, balance and the facial nerve. His lab discovered a way to regenerate tympanic membranes that is now in clinical trials and is actively developing therapeutics that target infections in the ear. Along with his role as Associate Director of SPARK's therapeutic translational program, he co-leads the Otoinnovation Lab and is Chair of the American Academy of Otolaryngology's Medical Device and Drugs Committee.
He attended medical school at The University of Western Australia before undertaking his residency in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. He was the Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery fellow at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (2012), Western Australia before undertaking a three year instructorship at Stanford University in Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery (2015). He joined Stanford faculty in 2017.
Scientifically, Dr Santa Maria completed his PhD in the molecular biology of wound healing of the tympanic membrane at The University of Western Australia (2012). His research includes a novel treatment for chronic ear drum perforations was accelerated through the SPARK program at Stanford, winning the "Excellence in Stanford SPARK 2014" award, and then partnered with Auration Biotech and Astellas pharmaceuticals, to bring the non-surgical treatment for ear drum repair into human clinical trials in 2020. He research now is leading a change in the way we understand chronic bactrial disease in ENT.