3017 Terasaki Life Sciences Building
610 Charles E. Young Drive East
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Sanaz Memarzadeh, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA & Director, G.O. Discovery Lab
Sanaz Memarzadeh is a gynecologic oncologist and molecular biologist. She gained an undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh. After medical school, also at the University of Pittsburgh, she moved to UCLA for her OB-GYN residency. She became passionate about caring for women with gynecologic cancers and realized that there was a vital need for basic science research in this field to help improve current therapies. She pursued a clinical fellowship in gynecologic oncology and at the same time began her training as a basic scientist. Within eight years, she earned a PhD and completed her fellowship training. She is passionate about being a woman clinician-scientist who works both at the bedside and the bench. She hopes to improve how women with gynecologic cancers are treated. She cares for patients with gynecologic cancers at UCLA and at the West Los Angeles VA hospital.
DIRECTOR
Grigor Varuzhanyan, Ph.D.
Assistant Adjunct Professor
Greg is studying how mitochondrial metabolism regulates lineage plasticity, therapeutic resistance, and metabolic vulnerabilities in gynecologic cancers, with a particular interest in treatment-emergent neuroendocrine states that can arise in ovarian and other epithelial malignancies. His work integrates functional genomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, pharmacology, and computational analyses of large-scale cancer datasets to identify mitochondrial dependencies that drive tumor progression and treatment resistance. He is also interested in how alternative RNA splicing rewires mitochondrial function to create cancer-specific vulnerabilities that may be therapeutically exploited.
Prior to joining the G.O. Discovery Lab, Grigor received his Ph.D. in Biology from the California Institute of Technology, where he trained in the laboratory of David C. Chan, M.D., Ph.D., and completed his postdoctoral training at UCLA in the laboratory of Owen N. Witte, M.D., studying mitochondrial metabolism in aggressive, pan small cell neuroendocrine cancers.
Christopher Ochoa, B.S.
Graduate Student
Christopher Ochoa is a graduate student in UCLA’s Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Doctoral Program (MBIDP) in the Cell & Developmental Biology home area. He graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. During his time at UC Davis, he worked in Dr. Joanna Chiu’s lab where he studied the circadian clock in Drosophila melanogaster and its role in maintaining organismal physiology. Inspired by the passion, dedication, and research focus of the lab, Christopher joined the Memarzadeh Lab with the hopes of contributing to the research that can impact the lives of women with cancer.
Gabriella DiBernardo, B.S.
Laboratory Manager, Staff Research Associate III
Gabriella earned her degree in Biological Sciences at Union College in New York. After graduating, she began her research career at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Plastic Surgery where she investigated long gap peripheral nerve regeneration using acellular conduits and adipose stem cell therapies for soft tissue deformities. She then worked at a regenerative medicine biotechnology company manufacturing autologous muscle derived cells. Gabriella is passionate about making discoveries and advancing research in gynecologic oncology to better the lives of patients.
Laura James-Allan, Ph.D.
Project Scientist
Laura is a project scientist in the G.O. Discovery Lab. She completed her Ph.D. in Reproductive Sciences at St George’s University of London focusing on pre-eclampsia and the placenta in early pregnancy. Her research interests in the placenta continued during her postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado and University of California Los Angeles, including projects focused on the role of placental nutrient transport and extracellular vesicles in gestational diabetes mellitus. Laura is passionate about women’s health and is looking forward to applying her skills and knowledge to the field of gynecologic oncology in the hopes of improving the lives of women with cancer.
Lauryn Ruegg, B.S.
Staff Research Associate II
Lauryn graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.S. in Human Biology. While attending UCSD, she worked in the Jamieson Lab investigating the subcellular location of ADAR1 in Secondary Acute Myeloid Leukemia. After graduation, Lauryn joined the Yang Lab at Cedars-Sinai, studying RIPK2 in Prostate Cancer. She is excited to be a part of the G.O. Discovery Lab and the advancement of gynecologic oncology research.
José Morán, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar
José Morán is a postdoctoral scholar in the G.O. Discovery Lab. Prior to joining, he completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at UC Irvine. His research focused on HIV latency and HIV cure approaches, specifically developing PKC modulators to target the latent reservoir. He also has prior experience studying adipogenesis of human mesenchymal stem cells and the interaction between Trichomonas vaginalis, a sexually transmitted parasite, and neutrophils. José is interested in how the human immune system interacts with infectious agents and cancers, including the gynecologic cancers being researched in the G.O. Discovery Lab.
Ky Duong, M.S.
Staff Research Associate I
Ky graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Pharmacology and Drug Development and M.S. in Management of Drug Development. In the Davies Lab at USC he researched molecular targets of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD), and dihydromyricetin as a promising disease-modifying therapy for ALD. He also completed a toxicology internship at Vividion Therapeutics where he identified and assessed potential safety liabilities for early-stage cancer drug programs. He looks forward to applying this knowledge in the G.O. Discovery Lab and developing solutions that improve the lives of cancer patients.
Claire Li
Undergraduate Researcher
Claire Li is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Computational and Systems Biology. She is passionate about biomedical research, beginning her career at the Harvard-affiliated Marcus Institute in Boston, where she studied bone health. She then returned to her hometown Calgary to work in the Boyd Lab on vertebral fracture detection and the use of opportunistic CT imaging to diagnose spinal conditions. Her long-standing interest in cancer treatment and women’s health has since guided her focus toward gynecologic cancers. Claire is excited to join the Memarzadeh Lab and contribute to advancing solutions for women with cancer.
Former lab members & Current positions
Sophia Ting
UCLA Undergraduate Researcher