Career Summary:  Dr. Memarzadeh is Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of gynecologic Oncology, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is also a clinical instructor and practices at West Los Angeles Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital. She serves on the Society of gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Program Committee. She received her M.D. in 1996 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She did her internship and fellowship, as well as her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, at UCLA. In addition to her STOP CANCER Award, she was Alpha Omega Alpha at University of Pittsburgh.

Year STOP CANCER Award was received:  2011 RCDA

Description of research performed:  Dr. Memarzadeh's lab is studying two poorly understood and under-studied epithelial gynecologic malignancies — endometrial and ovarian cancers.

Results of research:  Dr. Memarzadeh hypothesizes that the normal stem cells in the endometrium or ovary/fallopian tube could be the target cell for formation of endometrial or ovarian papillary serous carcinoma. She is developing models to use to assay for epithelial stem cells and study malignant transformation.