Fetal Medicine

Lead: Professor Lyn Chitty 

Research Tradition

Prenatal diagnosis and therapy have been a mainstay of Obstetric research at UCL since 1990, when Professor Charles Rodeck was appointed, who had an international reputation for pioneering work developing ultrasound-guided invasive procedures, such as fetal blood transfusion. Professor Rodeck retired in 2007, but previously led the Serum, Urine and Ultrasound Screening Study (SURUSS), assessing novel methods of Down syndrome screening, some of which are now incorporated into the protocols recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Current Research

Present lead of this research group, Dr Chitty, has played a major role in establishing the clinical significance of initial research, which demonstrated that up to 5% of the cell-free DNA in maternal blood derives from the fetus, probably from the trophoblast. As a consequence, UCLH have been amongst the first in the world to use this technique for determining sex of the fetus, where there is a risk of inheriting an X-linked condition, as well as determingin fetal Rhesus genotype where the mother is allo-immunised. Dr Chitty has recently obtained major National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding to extend these studies. Existing expertise at UCL will also allow basic research into the use of “deep sequencing” techniques on her extensive bank of samples to karyotype the fetus. Other areas of research interest include the maternal psychological impact related to the introduction of new diagnostic technologies as well as the perinatal outcome of fetal abnormalities diagnosed in utero.

Grant Income

Dr Lyn Chitty is Principal Investigator on peer-reviewed grants totalling more than £3.3 million and is a co-applicant on a further £800,000. These include 2 NIHR grants: one for £247,162, which is entitled “Antenatal determination of fetal Rhesus status using cell-free fetal DNA in the maternal circulation before 20 week: is routine application practical and beneficial?”, and a programme for £1,999,840 to assess non-invasive prenatal diagnosis.

Publications

The group has published 41 papers, 9 book chapters and 14 reviews since 2004.

Markers of Esteem

Dr Chitty is a member of the Down Syndrome Screening and Ultrasound Screening groups of the National Screening Committee, a member of the Research Advisory Board of BDF Newlife and Co-convenor of RCOG study group on reproductive genetics. She recently led the SAFE European Consortium and is a frequently invited speaker on this topic around the world.