How Physics, Medicine, and Lived Experience Shaped a Career in Breast Cancer Research and Risk Evaluation: With Ross Camidge, MD; and Sofia Diana Merajver, MD, PhD

How This Is Building Me, hosted by world-renowned oncologist D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, is a podcast focused on the highs and lows, ups and downs of all those involved with cancer, cancer medicine, and cancer science across the full spectrum of life’s experiences.

In this episode, Dr Camidge sat down with Sofia Diana Merajver, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist whose career bridges physics, medicine, and population health. Dr Merajver is the scientific director of the Breast Cancer Program, director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk Evaluation Program, and a professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center in Ann Arbor. In this discussion, she reflected on a lifelong journey shaped by immigration, intellectual curiosity, and a commitment to science in service of human health.

Dr Merajver described growing up in Buenos Aires, Argentina in a culturally rich but economically modest household, surrounded by books, art, and rigorous intellectual debate. Influenced by her parents’ history as Jewish immigrants and by early exposure to literature, philosophy, and classic cinema, she developed an early fascination with both the human condition and the scientific principles underlying it. Although raised in an artistic environment, she gravitated toward physics, viewing it as the foundational language needed to understand complex biological systems, a perspective that ultimately informed her later work as a clinician-investigator.

After arriving in the United States, Dr Merajver pursued advanced training in physics, completing a PhD and postdoctoral research focused on biophysical questions before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan. She recounted a pivotal professional inflection point when she encountered resistance to applying physics-driven approaches to biomedical problems, which contributed to her decision to pursue medical training. She explained how she entered medical school when she was simultaneously raising a family, emphasizing the importance of fully embracing clinical training rather than seeking shortcuts based on prior academic credentials. She ultimately chose oncology for its molecular complexity and translational potential, later building a career that integrated laboratory investigation with high-volume clinical care, including breast and genetic risk-focused practice.