Join us after the show on Sunday, March 19, 2017 for a discussion with Dr. Aubrey Milunsky, founder and co-director of the Centre for Human Genetics.
Dr. Aubrey Milunsky is the Founder of the non-profit Center for Human Genetics, now in it’s 34th year. He is a Co-Director with his son, and is an Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He was Professor of Human Genetics, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Pathology, and Director, Center for Human Genetics, Boston University School of Medicine, until his departure in December 2013. He was born and educated in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is triple-board certified in Clinical Genetics, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. He served as a medical geneticist at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital for 13 years before his professorial appointments at Boston University School of Medicine. The Center’s laboratories are a major International Referral Center for molecular diagnostics and for prenatal genetic diagnosis, & privileged to receive samples from 45 countries, in addition to all states in the US. The non-profit Center, is now in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He is the author and/or editor of twenty-five books including the 7th edition (2016) of his major reference work Genetic Disorders and the Fetus: Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment, now co-edited with his son Jeff, who was Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics and Genomics at Boston University School of Medicine. This book received the “Highly Commended” Award Certificate in 2010 from the British Medical Association. His latest book for the lay public was published by Oxford University Press entitled Your Genes, Your Health: A Critical Family Guide That Could Save Your Life. This book will appear in Indonesian. An earlier book (Know Your Genes) appeared in 9 languages. He is the author or co-author of over 400 scientific communications.
He has given hundreds of invited lectures, including in 34 countries and the Vatican.
In 1982 he was honored by election as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of England. In 1982, his Alma Mater, the University of the Witwatersrand School of Medicine, conferred the D.Sc. degree for his work on the Prenatal Detection of Genetic Disorders. He is an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society, and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. The Consumer Research Council of America has listed him repeatedly in their “Guide to America’s Top Pediatricians”.
He led the team that first located the gene for X-linked lymphoproliferative disease, first cloned the PAX3 gene for Waardenburg syndrome, and first demonstrated the 70% avoidance of spina bifida afforded by folic acid supplementation taken in the 3 months prior to pregnancy and the 3 months after conception. He and his co-workers have made the first prenatal diagnosis of various genetic disorders including tuberous sclerosis.
Boston University School of Medicine has named the AUBREY MILUNSKY CHAIR IN HUMAN GENETICS.