Sara Katsanis MS

Sara H. Katsanis is a Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine appointed in 2019. Her research focuses on policy options for genetic testing applications in medicine and law enforcement and how genetic technologies affect individuals. She has explored direct-to-consumer genetic testing, pharmacogenetics drug labeling, familial searching of CODIS, and surreptitious collection of DNA. She is currently delving into policy options for the applications of kinship analyses in immigration, and to identify missing persons and victims of human trafficking.

Katsanis received an MS in Medical Genetics from Brunel University in 1997 having completed her research thesis at Imperial College School of Medicine at St. Mary’s in London, UK. From 1998-2002, she worked in Houston, TX, first as a DNA Analyst in the forensic laboratory at the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office, then as an Associate Scientist managing the genotyping facility at Lexicon Genetics, Inc. In 2002, she joined Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD as Laboratory Manager for the DNA Diagnostic Laboratory, responsible for oversight and supervision of clinical diagnostic testing. In 2006, Katsanis began working with the Genetics & Public Policy Center within the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins in Washington, DC. She contributed to the Center’s efforts to address legal, ethical, and policy issues related to human reproductive genetic technologies, genetic testing quality and oversight, and public engagement in genetic testing and research. In 2009 she joined Duke University, serving as faculty in the Duke Initiative for Science and Society.