Sanaz Memarzadeh, M.D. Ph.D. is a clinician-scientist who studies two epithelial gynecologic tumors, endometrial and ovarian cancer. Memarzadeh and her team are seeking to uncover the causes of ovarian and endometrial cancer and hope to discover the nature and characteristics of normal cells that may be acting as precursors for both cancer types.
The most common sub-types of ovarian and endometrial cancer arise from epithelial cells, a specialized cell layer that lines the inside of the uterus and fallopian tubes and the outside of the ovary. Memarzadeh and her team plan to identify normal endometrial and ovarian/fallopian tube stem cells and investigate how these cells may play a role in initiating gynecologic cancers. Memarzadeh received her scientific training at UCLA through the Molecular Biologic Institute. During training, she realized that stem cells were vital not only for their regenerative activity, but also could be efficient targets for tumor formation in response to the cellular signals that can initiate cancer. She also learned that the self-renewal pathways for stem cells could be exploited by cancer cells to ensure their survival, and that blocking those signaling pathways could be a useful strategy in treating cancers. As a womens cancer specialist, she decided to focus her studies on stem cells in gynecologic organs and set out to define the role of these cells in initiating gynecologic cancers.
An assistant professor of gynecologic oncology, Memarzadeh completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA, followed by a three-year fellowship at UCLA in gynecologic oncology. She was named an assistant professor at UCLA in 2008. In addition to her membership with the Broad Stem Cell Research Institute, she is affiliated with the UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. She also is an active member of the Society for Gynecologic Oncology.
Memarzadehs laboratory is funded by a Stein Oppenheimer Clinical Translational seed grant, Scholars in Translational Medicine Gift, the Stewart and Lynda Resnick 2008 Young Investigator Award, the Liz Tilberis Scholars Program, a seed grant from UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and a training grant from Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Research. She was recently awarded new lab space in the Broad Stem Cell Research Center-Life Sciences Replacement Building.