Marjan Javanbakht, MPH, PhD

Core Co-Director, Development Core

Marjan Javanbakht, MPH, PhD, is an epidemiologist and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Dr. Javanbakht received her MPH from Yale University in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and completed her PhD in Epidemiology at UCLA. Her research focuses on HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and sexual health, with particular emphasis on the syndemic interplay of substance use, mental health, and structural and social determinants of health among populations disproportionately affected by HIV. She has led and collaborated on numerous NIH-, CDC-, and state-funded studies across clinical and community settings. She is currently MPI on an NIH-funded study examining how geography, place, and spatial context shape disparities across the HIV care continuum, as well as on a virtual cohort study of people living with HIV who are at elevated risk for adverse health outcomes.

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS:

1. Javanbakht M, Rosen A, Moore E, Shoptaw S, Gorbach PM. “Intersecting Vulnerabilities: The Role of Housing Instability and Methamphetamine Use on HIV Acquisition.” J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr – epub ahead of print

2. Yi G, Javanbakht M, Rosen A, Gorbach P, Clark J, Shoptaw S. “Speed and Smoking Kill: A Time-Varying Survival Analysis Linking Methamphetamine Use, Cigarette Smoking, and Mortality in Sexual Minority Men.” Int J Drug Policy 2025 Sep:143:104874

3. Appa A, Spinelli MA, Javanbakht M, Heise MJ, Hideaki O, Bazazi AR, Coffin P, Gorbach PM, Gandhi M. “Unintentional fentanyl use increasingly detected in hair in people using methamphetamine living with HIV or at risk for HIV.” JAMA 2025 Feb;333;(14):1257-1259. PMCID: PMC11866066

Last updated: 2/2/2026