Diana W. Bianchi MD

Diana W. Bianchi, M.D., is the director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and head of the Prenatal Genomics and Therapy Section for the Medical Genetics Branch at NHGRI. She oversees the research on pediatric health and development, maternal health, reproductive health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and rehabilitation medicine, among other areas. These efforts include managing a staff of approximately 1,400 people and an annual budget of approximately $1.3 billion. Dr. Bianchi serves as an ambassador and spokesperson for NICHD.

Dr. Bianchi received her B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed her residency training in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital, Boston, and her postdoctoral fellowship training in medical genetics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, both at Harvard. She is board-certified in all three specialties and is a practicing medical geneticist with special expertise in reproductive genetics. Dr. Bianchi's translational research focuses on two broad themes: prenatal genomics with the goal of advancing noninvasive prenatal DNA screening and diagnosis and investigating the fetal transcriptome to develop new therapies for genetic disorders that can be given prenatally.