Laura Fejerman PhD

Dr. Laura Fejerman is an Associate Professor at the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences at the School of Medicine, University of California, Davis.

She was recently named the Co-Director, Women’s Cancer Care Program Leader for the Latinos United for Cancer Health Advancement (LUCHA) Initiative at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Fejerman’s research focuses on the discovery of genetic and non-genetic factors that contribute to breast cancer risk and prognosis in Latinas. Her past work established a relationship between genetic ancestry and breast cancer risk, where higher European ancestry in U.S. and Mexican Latinas was associated with an increased risk. Her subsequent research has built upon this observation, exploring genetic variants, through admixture mapping and genome-wide association approaches, as well as the possible environmental and lifestyle-related factors, and ancestry-gene interactions. Her additional work explores disparities in breast cancer prognosis in Latinas and its potential causes, including access to information, screening, and care.

Dr. Fejerman earned her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology and MSc in Human Biology at the University of Oxford, England. She completed her undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.