Members
Diana Farmer
Distinguished Professor and Pearl Stamps Stewart Endowed Chair Chair, Department of Surgery, UC Davis School of Medicine, University of California, Davis Health
Surgeon-in-Chief, University of California, Davis Children’s Hospital Chief, Pediatric Surgery, Shriners Hospitals for Children
Cypress Building, 2221 Stockton Blvd., Suite 3112, Sacramento, CA 95817
(916) 734-3190
dlfarmer (at) ucdavis.edu
Education
- 1973-1977 Wellesley College – BA, Biololgy
- 1974-1974 Bermuda Biological Stations St. George, Bermuda – Marine Biollogy
- 1975-1975 Stanford University Hopkins Marine Laboratory Pacific Grove, Monterey, CA – Marine Biology
- 1976-1977 MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Woods Hole, Falmouth, MA – Marine Biology
- 1977-1977 Harvard College Boston, MA – Pre-Med Studies
- 1977-1978 College of Idaho Caldwell, ID – Pre-Med Studies
- 1979-1983 University of Washington School of Medicine Seattle, WA – MD, Medicine
- 1985-1986 University of Washington School of Medicine Seattle, WA – Intern – General Surgery
- 1986-1987 University of Washington School of Medicine Seattle, WA – Resident – General Surgery
- 1987-1989 University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA – Postdoctoral Fellow – Surgical Oncology
- 1987-1989 Tumor Immunology: UCSF postdoc….”Surgical Oncology, Tumor Immunology”
- 1990-1991 University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA – Resident – General Surgery
- 1991-1992 University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA – Senior Resident – General Surgery
- 1992-1993 University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA – Chief Resident – General Surgery
- 1993-1995 Children’s Hospital of Michigan Detroit, MI – Fellow – Pediatric Surgery
Dr. Farmer is the first female surgeon, with over two decades of experience treating birth defects in and outside of the womb. She has pioneered foundational techniques in pediatric and fetal surgery and has been active in research evaluating these in terms of patient outcomes. Dr. Farmer is currently working on several university-, state-, and federal funded research grants involving spina bifida and related neural diseases. For example, she serves as Principal Investigator on a CLIN1 CIRM (California Institute of Regenerative Medicine) funded grant with the main goal of producing GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) grade placental mesenchymal stem cells (PMSC) banks to carry out IND (Investigational New Drug) enabling studies for developing allogeneic PMSC products for the fetal treatment of spina bifida. Safety and efficacy studies in animal models are currently undergoing to fulfill FDA requirements for approval of the stem cell product for a future clinical trial. Dr. Farmer is involved in several other active projects in developing new animal models and innovative bioengineering technologies to treat a variety of pediatric diseases and disorders. Dr. Farmer has had continuous NIH funding for over 2 decades.
2018
Farmer DL, Thom EA, Brock JW 3rd, Burrows PK, Johnson MP, Howell LJ, Farrell JA, Gupta N, Adzick NS; Management of Myelomeningocele Study Investigators. The Management of Myelomeningocele Study: full cohort 30-month pediatric outcomes. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2018 Feb;218(2):256.e1-256.e13. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2017.12.001. Epub 2017 Dec 12. PMID: 29246577; PMCID: PMC7737375. Download PDF
2017
Farmer DL. Audacious Goals – 2.0 The Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery. J Pediatr Surg. 2017 Oct 12:S0022-3468(17)30629-2. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2017.10.007. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 29173774. Download PDF
2015
Farmer DL. Standing on the shoulders of giants: a scientific journey from Singapore to stem cells. J Pediatr Surg. 2015 Jan;50(1):15-22. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2014.10.025. Epub 2014 Oct 28. PMID: 25598087. Download PDF
Lankford L, Selby T, Becker J, Ryzhuk V, Long C, Farmer D, Wang A. Early gestation chorionic villi-derived stromal cells for fetal tissue engineering. World J Stem Cells. 2015 Jan 26;7(1):195-207. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i1.195. PMID: 25621120; PMCID: PMC4300931. Download PDF
Brown EG, Keller BA, Pivetti CD, Sitkin NA, Wang A, Farmer DL, Bresnahan JC. Development of a locomotor rating scale for testing motor function in sheep. J Pediatr Surg. 2015 Apr;50(4):617-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2015.01.002. Epub 2015 Jan 24. PMID: 25840074. Download PDF
Brown EG, Keller BA, Pivetti CD, Farmer DL. Innate healing in the fetal sheep model of myelomeningocele: A standardized defect grading system. J Pediatr Surg. 2015 Jul;50(7):1134-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2014.10.021. Epub 2014 Dec 5. PMID: 25783311. Download PDF
Brown EG, Keller BA, Lankford L, Pivetti CD, Hirose S, Farmer DL, Wang A. Age Does Matter: A Pilot Comparison of Placenta-Derived Stromal Cells for in utero Repair of Myelomeningocele Using a Lamb Model. Fetal Diagn Ther. 2016;39(3):179-85. doi: 10.1159/000433427. Epub 2015 Jul 7. PMID: 26159889. Download PDF
Brock JW 3rd, Carr MC, Adzick NS, Burrows PK, Thomas JC, Thom EA, Howell LJ, Farrell JA, Dabrowiak ME, Farmer DL, Cheng EY, Kropp BP, Caldamone AA, Bulas DI, Tolivaisa S, Baskin LS; MOMS Investigators. Bladder Function After Fetal Surgery for Myelomeningocele. Pediatrics. 2015 Oct;136(4):e906-13. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-2114. PMID: 26416930; PMCID: PMC4586733. Download PDF
2011
Adzick NS, Thom EA, Spong CY, Brock JW 3rd, Burrows PK, Johnson MP, Howell LJ, Farrell JA, Dabrowiak ME, Sutton LN, Gupta N, Tulipan NB, D’Alton ME, Farmer DL; MOMS Investigators. A randomized trial of prenatal versus postnatal repair of myelomeningocele. N Engl J Med. 2011 Mar 17;364(11):993-1004. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1014379. Epub 2011 Feb 9. PMID: 21306277; PMCID: PMC3770179. Download PDF