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

hyperemesis gravidarum Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is a pregnancy complication that is characterized by severe nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and possibly dehydration. Feeling faint may also occur. It is considered more severe than morning sickness. Symptoms often get ...

and ovarian cancer. She received her undergraduate degree from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in Applied Math in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University in 1995. Currently she has joint appointments in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Southern California and the department of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she works in the laboratory of

Dennis J. Slamon Dennis Joseph Slamon (born August 6, 1948), is an American oncologist and chief of the division of Hematology-Oncology at UCLA. He is best known for his work identifying the HER2/neu oncogene that is amplified in 25-33% of breast cancer patients ...

. She has published peer-reviewed scientific articles on many diseases of women including ovarian cancer, breast cancer,

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

, and discovered the first genes for uterine fibroids, nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, and hyperemesis gravidarum. She is a science advisor for the Hyperemesis Education and Research Foundation.

Personal life

Fejzo is the granddaughter of the Austrian composers

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

and Eric Zeisl, and the sister of the attorney

E. Randol Schoenberg Eric Randol Schoenberg (born September 12, 1966) is an American lawyer and genealogist, based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in legal cases related to the recovery of looted or stolen artworks, particularly those by the Nazi regime durin ...

. Fejzo has three children.

Bibliography

Placenta and appetite genes GDF15 and IGFBP7 are associated with HG

References

1968 births Living people American medical researchers American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Brown University alumni Harvard University alumni David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA faculty University of Southern California faculty {{US-med-bio-stub