Diana Bianchi Explained

Diana Bianchi
Fields:Medical Genetics, Neonatology
Workplaces:Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Tufts University School of Medicine, Tufts Medical Center, Floating Hospital for Children
Education:University of Pennsylvania (BA)
Stanford University (MD)
Doctoral Advisor:Leonard Herzenberg
Known For:Fetal cell microchimerism
Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT)

Diana W. Bianchi is the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a post often called “the nation’s pediatrician.” She is a medical geneticist and neonatologist noted for her research on fetal cell microchimerism and prenatal testing. Bianchi had previously been the Natalie V. Zucker Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine and founder and executive director of the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center. She also has served as Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center.

Early life and education

Bianchi grew up in New York City and graduated from Hunter College High School.

Bianchi earned a B.A. magna cum laude from University of Pennsylvania and an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. While at Stanford she performed her doctoral research with Leonard Herzenberg, studying the use of flow cytometry to develop a noninvasive cytogenetic prenatal diagnostic test for Down syndrome. One of Herzenberg’s children had Down syndrome, so the project had both scientific and personal significance for her mentor.[1]

Career

After medical school at Stanford University, she completed her postdoctoral work at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.[2] Bianchi joined the faculty at Harvard University in 1986, concurrently assuming a position as an attending neonatologist and geneticist at Boston Children’s Hospital. In 1993, Bianchi left to take a position at Tufts University School of Medicine, receiving an endowed chair in 2002.

In 2007, Bianchi became editor-in-chief of Prenatal Diagnosis, the journal of the International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis.[3] In 2010, she founded the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center, assuming the position of executive director.[4] Bianchi is one of four authors of the book Fetology: Diagnosis and Management of the Fetal Patient,[5] which won the Association of American Publishers award for the best textbook in clinical medicine in 2000.

Bianchi has worked for many years on developing methods to isolate intact fetal cells from maternal blood as a noninvasive way to obtain fetal material for genetic diagnosis. While the work proved challenging due to the relative rarity of the fetal cells in the mother’s blood, the research led to an unexpected finding. Bianchi discovered that intact fetal cells remain in the mother's blood and organs for decades following pregnancy, with the possibility of migrating to the site of an injury in the mother, dividing and changing into the cells needed to fix the problem.[6] [7] [8] This has led to a field of study known as fetal cell microchimerism.[7]

Bianchi also has worked extensively on noninvasive prenatal testing using DNA sequencing of fetal and placental DNA fragments in the blood of pregnant women. Dr. Bianchi’s research is part of what has helped expand the use of non-invasive testing in the general obstetrical population. The sequencing technology employed in cfDNA testing has a number of potential uses in many areas of health care, Dr. Messerlian says, including cancer, transplantation and in vitro fertilization protocols, and research she is conducting is exploring those possibilities. This technology has been used in clinical prenatal care since 2011.[9] In addition, Bianchi has pioneered the study of the amniotic fluid fetal transcriptome to develop new approaches to prenatal treatment of genetic conditions.[10] She is a former member of the Clinical Advisory Board of Verinata Health, an Illumina company.[11]

In 2014, Bianchi was the lead author on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that examined cell-free fetal DNA test performance in a general obstetrical population. This study showed that cell-free DNA testing had lower false positive rates and higher positive predictive values than maternal serum biochemistry analyses with or without ultrasound measurements of the back of the fetal neck.[12] [13] Bianchi has also studied the underlying biological reasons for false positive results following NIPT.[14] She has shown that maternal malignancies can cause genome-wide imbalance that presents as a false positive result of fetal aneuploidy.[15] Currently, Bianchi is working with a mouse model to develop a prenatal treatment that could be given to a pregnant woman carrying a fetus with Down syndrome. The goal of the work is to improve brain development in the womb and neurocognition after birth.[16] [17]

Bianchi was appointed director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, on August 25, 2016.[18] In this role, she oversees research on pediatric health and development, maternal health, medical rehabilitation, population dynamics, reproductive health, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. In 2020, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam that recognized her contributions to the fields of fetal cell microchimerism and noninvasive prenatal testing using DNA sequencing of fetal and placental DNA fragments.[19] In 2022, Bianchi was a finalist for a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal, or Sammie, in recognition of her efforts in advancing critical research to understand the medical implications of COVID-19 among underserved populations.[20] Later that year, Bianchi was named to Forbes Magazine's Top 50 Women Over 50: Impact. [21]

Significant papers

Awards

Leadership positions in professional societies

Patents issued

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Stanford Geneticist Leonard Herzenberg dies . Palo Alto Online. 12 November 2013. . 10 February 2014.
  2. News: Pediatrics expert, geneticist Diana Bianchi to head NIH's national institute for child health. 2016-08-26. Healthcare IT News. 2018-02-03. en.
  3. Web site: Prenatal Diagnosis . Wiley Online Library . 4 April 2014. 10.1002/(ISSN)1097-0223 .
  4. Web site: In Conversation: Tufts Geneticist Diana Bianchi on Noninvasive Prenatal Testing . Bio-IT World. 5 November 2012. . 4 April 2014.
  5. Book: Fetology: Diagnosis and Management of the Fetal Patient. Bianchi. Diana. Crombleholme. T.. D'Alton. M.. Malone. F.. McGraw Hill Medical. 2000. New York.
  6. Khosrotehrani . K . Johnson . KL . Cha . DH . Salomon . RN . Bianchi . DW . Transfer of fetal cells with multilineage potential to maternal tissue . JAMA . 2004 . 292 . 1 . 75–80 . 15238593 . 10.1001/jama.292.1.75. free .
  7. Bianchi . DW . Fisk . NM . Fetomaternal cell trafficking and the stem cell debate: gender matters . JAMA . 2007 . 297 . 13 . 1489–1491 . 17405974 . 10.1001/jama.297.13.1489.
  8. Pritchard . S . Bianchi . DW . Fetal cell microchimerism in the maternal heart: baby gives back. . Circulation Research . 2012 . 110 . 1 . 82–93 . 22223204 . 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.111.260299. 4459519 .
  9. Web site: In Conversation: Tufts Geneticist Diana Bianchi on Noninvasive Prenatal Testing . Bio-IT World. 5 November 2012. . 26 March 2014.
  10. Bianchi . DW . From prenatal genomic diagnosis to fetal personalized medicine: progress and challenges . Nature Medicine . 2012 . 18 . 7 . 1041–1051 . 22772565 . 10.1038/nm.2829. 4433004 .
  11. Clinical Advisory Board Verinata Web site: Clinical Advisory Board | Verinata . 2014-02-07 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131218070431/http://www.verinata.com/advisory-boards.html . 2013-12-18 .
  12. News: Belluck . Pam . Test is Improved Predictor of Fetal Disorders . 26 March 2014 . The New York Times . 26 February 2014.
  13. Bianchi . DW . Parker . RL . Wentworth . J . etal . DNA sequencing versus standard prenatal aneuploidy screening . New England Journal of Medicine . February 27, 2014 . 370 . 9 . 799–808 . 24571752 . 10.1056/nejmoa1311037. free .
  14. Bianchi . DW . Pregnancy: prepare for unexpected prenatal test results . Nature . 522 . 7554 . 29–30 . 26040879 . 10.1038/522029a. June 2015. 2015Natur.522...29B . free .
  15. Bianchi . DW . Chudova . S . Sehnert . AJ . etal . Noninvasive prenatal testing and incidental detection of occult maternal malignancies . JAMA . 2015 . 314 . 2 . 162–169. 26168314 . 10.1001/jama.2015.7120. free .
  16. Guedj . F . Bianchi . DW . Noninvasive prenatal testing creates an opportunity for antenatal treatment of Down syndrome . Prenatal Diagnosis . 33 . 6 . 614–618 . 23595836 . 10.1002/pd.4134 . June 2013. 21931267 . free .
  17. Web site: A Change of Mind . MIT Technology Review. 16 December 2015. . 7 June 2016.
  18. Web site: NIH names Dr. Diana Bianchi director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development . 25 August 2016 . NIH Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. 25 August 2016. . 31 August 2016.
  19. Web site: UvA honorary doctorate for medical geneticist and neonatologist Diana Bianchi. 19 November 2019.
  20. Web site: Diana Bianchi, M.D. - Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals .
  21. Web site: 50 Over 50 2022: Impact . .
  22. List of Recipients Milton O. and Natalie V. Zucker Prize, Tufts University School of Medicine http://sackler.tufts.edu/Faculty-and-Research/Faculty Recognition/Zucker-Research-Prizes/Milton-O-and-Natalie-V-Zucker-Prize
  23. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Kristine Sandberg Knisely Lectureship http://www.chop.edu/service/neonatology/professional-resources/kristine-sandberg-knisely-lectureship.html
  24. Academia Nacional de Medicina Buenos Aires http://www.acamedbai.org.ar/integrantes.php#correspondientes-extranjeros
  25. 12.13. Members Directory, Association of American Physicians http://aap-online.org/admin/members.php?search=1
  26. Bio, Diana W. Bianchi, American Academy of Pediatrics http://www2.aap.org/sections/perinatal/pdf/BianchiBio.pdf
  27. Roster, National Advisory Council, NICHD Web site: National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council Roster . 2014-02-07 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140105084616/https://www.nichd.nih.gov/about/advisory/nachhd/Pages/roster.aspx . 2014-01-05 .
  28. List of recipients, Tufts University Christopher Columbus Spirit of Discovery Award http://president.tufts.edu/christopher-columbus-celebrate-discovery-award/#
  29. News: Institute of Medicine Elects 70 New Members, 10 Foreign Associates . 21 October 2013 . 13 February 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140716224848/http://www.iom.edu/Global/News%20Announcements/2013-New-Members.aspx . 2014-07-16 . dead .
  30. Web site: Section on Perinatal Pediatrics - Awards . 2016-06-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045942/https://www2.aap.org/sections/perinatal/awards.html . 2016-03-04 . dead .
  31. Web site: American Pediatric Society / Society for Pediatric Research (APS/SPR).
  32. https://web.archive.org/web/20110519173408/http://http/
  33. News: NICHD Director Recognized with March of Dimes Lifetime Achievement Award.
  34. Web site: ISPD Pioneer Award.
  35. Web site: Annual Awards - SWHR. 6 August 2019 .
  36. Web site: Drs. Bianchi, Cohn named finalists for Service to America Medals .
  37. Web site: Perinatal Research Society 2013 Council. February 13, 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131126115504/http://perinatalresearchsociety.org/Council.html . November 26, 2013 .
  38. Membership records at SPR. Contact APS Executive Offices: http://www.aps-spr.org
  39. American Society of Human Genetics Business Meeting Minutes 10/2002 http://www.ashg.org/pdf/October_2002.pdf
  40. Membership records at APS. Contact APS Executive Offices: http://www.aps-spr.org
  41. Diana Bianchi Speaker Bio, Tufts University Presidential Inauguration 2011 http://president.tufts.edu/inauguration2011/bianchi/
  42. International Society of Prenatal Diagnosis Directory of Officers Web site: International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis . 2014-02-13 . dead . https://archive.today/20140324224846/http://www.ispdhome.org/public/about-officers.aspx . 2014-03-24 .

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