Diana Bianchi

Diana W. Bianchi is a medical geneticist and neonatologist noted for her pioneering research on fetal cell microchimerism and noninvasive prenatal testing. She is the former director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a post often called “the nation’s pediatrician.” Prior to that role, Bianchi was the Natalie V. Zucker Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine and founder and executive director of the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center. She also has served as Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center.

Early life and education

Bianchi grew up in New York City and graduated from Hunter College High School.

Bianchi earned a B.A. magna cum laude from University of Pennsylvania and an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. While at Stanford she performed her doctoral research with Leonard Herzenberg, studying the use of flow cytometry to develop a noninvasive cytogenetic prenatal diagnostic test for Down syndrome. One of Herzenberg’s children had Down syndrome, so the project had both scientific and personal significance for her mentor.

Career

After medical school at Stanford University, she completed her postdoctoral work at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Bianchi joined the faculty at Harvard University in 1986, concurrently assuming a position as an attending neonatologist and geneticist at Boston Children’s Hospital. In 1993, Bianchi left to take a position at Tufts University School of Medicine, receiving an endowed chair in 2002.