Farmer grew up in Chicago and Boise, Idaho, to a flight attendant mother and Navy fighter pilot father.
[1] After a surgical fellowship in Michigan, Farmer was awarded a Luce Scholarship to study medicine in Asia and moved to Singapore with her husband.
[1] As the UCSF Children’s Hospital Surgeon-in-Chief, Farmer’s research interests include fetal therapy interventions for myelomeningocele and other birth defects.
In 2019, Farmer and Aijun Wang identified exosomes and galectin 1 as key to protecting neurons and ultimately reducing the lower-limb paralysis associated with the birth defect.
[9] She was later awarded a grant to co-launch the world’s first human clinical trial using stem cells to treat spina bifida with Aijun Wang.