Janet Wojcicki

Dr. Janet Wojcicki is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. Her research focuses on health equity, with particular attention to nutrition, maternal and child health, and health disparities among Latino populations. She maintains an active research program investigating the biological mechanisms linking social determinants of health to clinical outcomes.

Dr. Wojcicki earned her AB in International Relations from Stanford University in 1991, followed by a PhD in Anthropology/African Studies from UCLA in 2000. She completed an MPH in Epidemiology from UC Berkeley in 2001, a Postdoctoral Fellowship in HIV Prevention/Nutrition at UCSF in 2005, and a MAS in Maternal and Child Nutrition from UC Davis in 2011. She also completed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Champion Training at UCSF in 2021.

Her research interests span multiple interconnected domains: nutrition & food security, human rights & refugee health, mental health, newborn & infant health, child & adolescent health, and women's health. A significant portion of her work focuses on telomere biology as a biomarker of cellular aging and its relationship to obesity, stress, and health disparities in Latino populations. She has conducted extensive research on the impact of social determinants on health outcomes, particularly among vulnerable populations including immigrants and refugees.

Analysis of Dr. Wojcicki's recent publications reveals a strong focus on health disparities research, particularly examining how social determinants influence biological outcomes. Her work frequently investigates telomere length as a biomarker connecting social stressors to health outcomes in Latino populations. She has made significant contributions to understanding obesity, nutrition, and perinatal health in underserved communities, with recent work expanding to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable populations.

Dr. Wojcicki has secured significant research funding, including NIH R03DK097458 on Stress, Obesity and Telomere Length in Latino Infants and Toddlers (2013-2015) and NIH K01DK080825 on Maternal Depression and Child Weight Gain in a Latino Cohort (2009-2015), where she served as Principal Investigator.

Her research is conducted through the Institute for Global Health Sciences at UCSF, with field work conducted in both the United States and Canada. She collaborates extensively with researchers across disciplines, particularly in epidemiology, nutrition, and pediatrics, to address complex health disparities through both observational and intervention studies.