cell free DNA

Diana Bianchi began her career in genetics so long ago that she needed to make one thing clear: “I’m not that old. I just started young.” And it’s true! Diana fell in love with the study of chromosomes back in high school and returned to it as a pediatrician and a specialist in neonatal medicine. From the start of her career, she has been absorbed in the question of how to pull information on the fetus from the maternal bloodstream. Her work has led her through a 3-decade+ academic career (where she was lead author on a landmark 2014 study showing the clinical value of cell-free DNA testing) and now to the NIH, where she directs the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Diana joins us here today to discuss the past, present, and future of prenatal genetic testing.