Source:
By: NOW Foundation
A deserving recipient of NOW Foundation’s Victoria L. Mastrobuono’s Award in Women’s Health, Dr. Marlena Fejzo has led a distinguished career focused on researching health challenges most often experienced by women. In March, Dr. Fejzo was honored as one of Time’s Women of the Year and, in May, she was named one of Time’s 100 Health leaders, advancing safe pregnancy. Dr. Fejzo has made significant breakthroughs in research on Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG – a severe form of vomiting during pregnancy), fueled by her own personal experience with the condition. She successfully identified the gene with the greatest risk factor for developing the condition and is now turning her attention to identifying potential therapeutics.
Marlena Schoenberg Fejzo is a women’s health scientist. She received her Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University in 1995. From 2000-2020, 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 a research faculty at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology.
Dr. Fejzo 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 during pregnancy, and Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG). In 2018, Fejzo, in collaboration with personal genetics company 23andMe, Inc. published the first link between the placenta, appetite, and vomiting hormones. Fejzo made the top 10 list of 2023’s Fiercest Women in Life Sciences. In December 2023, Nature published a study by Fejzo et al. that identified ways to potentially prevent and treat both nausea and vomiting in pregnancy and HG.
Fejzo is Research Director and Board Member of the Hyperemesis Education and Research (HER) Foundation, Board Member of the Foundation for Women’s Health, CSO of Harmonia Healthcare, and an advisor for NGM Bio. Dr. Fejzo is currently seeking funding opportunities and grants related to her work on Hyperemesis Gravidarum.
See the Full List of National NOW Awardees
About Harmonia Healthcare
Harmonia is a highly specialized women’s health platform that combines cutting edge functional medicine treatment with science-backed resolution for underdiagnosed, undertreated and otherwise dismissed female-specific diseases. Initially focused on hyperemesis gravidarum, Harmonia’s physician-lead research, diagnostic and treatment programs result in superior health outcomes and subsequently enhanced wellbeing and quality of life.
For more information on Harmonia and hyperemesis gravidarum, or to learn if you might be suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, visit www.harmoniahealthcare.com or connect with us on Instagram at @harmoniahealthcare.