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Marlena Fejzo

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American medical scientist

Marlena Schoenberg Fejzo (born February 20, 1968) is an American medical scientist and professor of research on hyperemesis gravidarum.

Education

She received her undergraduate degree from Brown University in Applied Math in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University in 1995. From 2000-2020, while working on the side on Hyperemesis Gravidarum due to her own personal experience with the condition, she worked on ovarian cancer in the department of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the laboratory of Dennis J. Slamon. Currently she is research faculty at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine.

Research

She has published peer-reviewed scientific articles on many diseases of women including ovarian cancer, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, and discovered the first genes for uterine fibroids, nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, and hyperemesis gravidarum. In 2018, Fejzo, in collaboration with personal genetics company 23andMe, Inc, published the first link between nausea and vomiting of pregnancy and the placenta, appetite, and vomiting hormone GDF15 as well as other genes. In 2022, she published the first mutation in GDF15 associated with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG), solidifying the role of GDF15 as a predisposing factor for HG. In December, 2023, in collaboration with Stephen O'Rahilly and a team of international researchers, Fejzo published a study that identified the mechanism involved in nausea and vomiting of pregnancy and HG. The study identified ways to potentially prevent and treat both nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (common misnomer "morning sickness") and HG. Fejzo is a Research Advisor and Board Member of the Hyperemesis Education and Research Foundation.

Recognition

In 2023 Fejzo was named one of ten fiercest women in life sciences by Fierce Pharma and in 2024 was selected as a TIME Women of the year, a Time100 Health honoree, and a National NOW awardee.

Personal life

Fejzo is the granddaughter of the Austrian composers Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl, and the sister of the attorney E. Randol Schoenberg. She is the great-granddaughter of the Austrian physician and endocrinologist Rudolf Rafael Kolisch. Fejzo has three children.

References

  1. Callahan, Alice (14 March 2023). "Her Doctor Said Her Illness Was All in Her Head. This Scientist Was Determined to Find the Truth". The New York Times.
  2. "Marlena Fejzo". Keck School of Medicine of USC. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  3. "Want to know more about hyperemesis (HG)?". HER Foundation. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  4. Fejzo, Marlena S.; et al. (2018). "Placenta and appetite genes GDF15 and IGFBP7 are associated with hyperemesis gravidarum". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 1178. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.1178F. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03258-0. PMC 5862842. PMID 29563502.
  5. Fejzo, Marlena S.; MacGibbon, Kimber W.; First, Olivia; Quan, Courtney; Mullin, Patrick M. (2022). "Whole-exome sequencing uncovers new variants in GDF15 associated with hyperemesis gravidarum". BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. 129 (11): 1845–1852. doi:10.1111/1471-0528.17129. PMC 9546032. PMID 35218128.
  6. Fejzo, M.; et al. (2023). "GDF15 linked to maternal risk of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy". Nature. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06921-9. PMC 10808057. PMID 38092039. S2CID 266233306.
  7. Ghorayshi, Azeen (13 December 2023). "Scientists Pinpoint Cause of Severe Morning Sickness". The New York Times.
  8. "Marlena S. Fejzo, Ph.D". HER Foundation. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  9. Park, Andrea (27 November 2023). "2023's Fiercest Women in Life Sciences". www.fiercepharma.com.
  10. Ducharme, Jamie (21 February 2024). "Her Doctor Dismissed Her Extreme Morning Sickness. So She Found the Gene Behind It". Time.
  11. Ducharme, Jamie (2 May 2024). "Time100 Health".
  12. "Marlena Fejzo, Ph. D. – Victoria J. Mastrobuono Award". Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  13. ritalrubin@gmail.com. "Weighing The Risks And Benefits Of A Drug Prescribed To Pregnant Women For Extreme Morning Sickness". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
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