Dame Lyn Chitty

Dame Lyn Chitty, Professor of Genetics and Fetal Medicine at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, has published extensively on prenatal diagnosis and ultrasound screening of fetal abnormalities, and was responsible for creating the fetal size standards now in use throughout the UK and beyond.

Recently, her main research interest has been the use of cell-free DNA. She led an NIHR programme, 'Reliable Accurate Prenatal non-Invasive Diagnosis' (RAPID), which resulted in NHS implementation of NIPD for rare diseases, and provided the evidence to support routine implementation of NIPT for aneuploidy into NHS maternity care.

She continues to work on the implementation of new molecular techniques to improve prenatal diagnosis through the investigation of whole exome and genome sequencing and extended development of NIPD. She is an editor of the journal Prenatal Diagnosis. In 2014, she was appointed an NIHR Senior Investigator. In addition to her own research, she is Clinical Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network: North Thames, responsible for delivery of the NIHR portfolio of studies across all specialties, and Clinical Director for the North Thames NHS Genomic Medicine Centre, which delivers around 25% of the genomes for the 100,000 Genomes Project. This national transformation programme is resulting in the implementation of personalised medicine in the NHS, and has led to a broadening of her research interests, which now include developing methods to ensure informed consent for sequencing.