
Laura Jelliffe, PhD, MS
Dr. Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski is a Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and of Global Health Sciences in the UCSF School of Medicine, is the Director of Precision Health and Discovery with the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative (pretermbirthca.ucsf.edu), is the Lead and Founder of the UCSF HOPE Research Consortium (HOPE.ucsf.edu), is the Primary Investigator of the HOPE Study (HOPE.ucsf.edu/HOPE_Study), and is a Primary Investigator (multi-PI) with the PROMPT Study (pretermbirthca.ucsf.edu/prompt).
In all of Dr. Jelliffe-Pawlowski's professional roles, her work has focused on uncovering causes of adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes and identifying in-roads for interventions through the development novel tools and tests that can be used across the globe. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the March of Dimes, the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative (funded by Marc and Lynn Benioff), and by numerous other funding entities. She has published more than 100 scientific papers related to pregnancy and infant health and holds patents for blood tests and algorithms that predict preterm birth and preeclampsia as well as mortality and major morbidity in babies born preterm. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, in the Atlantic, in WIRED Magazine, and on CNN. NPR, BBC, the Today Show, the CBS Evening News, and in and across numerous other news outlets.
She has served as a state, national, and international adviser on committees and task forces focused on the early detection and prevention of preterm birth and developmental disabilities and has deep expertise in research focused on understanding race/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband and teenage daughter.