New Leader for Human Genetics: Anne Slavotinek, MBBS, PhD
Post Date: February 4, 2022 | Publish Date:
Anne Slavotinek, MBBS, PhD, a board-certified human geneticist, has been selected as the A. Graeme Mitchell chair of Human Genetics and division director of Human Genetics at Cincinnati Children’s.
When she begins her new role in June 2022, Slavotinek will bring together both the Division of Human Genetics and the Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology (CAGE).
Slavotinek was selected after an extensive search chaired by Leah Kottyan, PhD, interim director of CAGE, and Jeffery Molkentin, PhD, director of the Division of Molecular Cardiovascular Biology and co-director of the Heart Institute.
She comes from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where she has been professor of Clinical Pediatrics and section head for General Genetics and Genomics. She also serves as section chief of Medical Genetics at Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.
“As we come together with Human Genetics, the researchers in CAGE are excited to find new collaboration and opportunities to understand disease,” Kottyan says. “We look forward to Dr. Slavotinek’s leadership in elevating genetics and genomics across the institution.”
Highlights of Slavotinek’s Work & Experience
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198 peer-reviewed publications
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Director of the Personalized Genomics clinic, the first of its kind at UCSF
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Co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Medical Genetics
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Invited to France and England in 2019 to speak about the genetics of eye malformations
Slavotinek’s research explores next-generation sequencing and personalized medicine where she leads a U01 grant entitled “Genomic sequencing to aid diagnosis in pediatric and prenatal practice: examining clinical utility, ethical implications, payer coverage, and data integration in a diverse population.”
She continues to run a basic science laboratory using zebrafish as an animal model to study the genetic causes and mechanisms underlying birth defects, including the eye defects of anophthalmia, microphthalmia, and coloboma.
As an active clinician, she sees patients with rare patterns of congenital anomalies using both clinical and research whole exome sequencing to identify new causative genes. In recent years, her team has described genetic variants for several clinical syndromes.
“We are excited to learn from her experience as we follow her lead in bringing more genomic clinical care and research into the diverse communities surrounding Cincinnati Children’s,” Kottyan says.
Slavotinek completed her medical training at Adelaide in South Australia, then moved to the United Kingdom where she completed her doctorate degree. She went on to complete her residency in medical genetics at the Churchill Hospital—an affiliate of Oxford University Medical School—followed by a fellowship in medical genetics at St. Mary’s Hospital—part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Slavotinek then came to the United States and completed another fellowship in medical genetics at the National Institutes of Health.
