Duncan NRI Ignatia B. Van den Veyver, M.D.

Dr. Van den Veyver's lab conducts basic and translational research on the molecular genetics of human developmental and reproductive disorders. As a practicing clinician and the Director of Prenatal and Reproductive Genetics at the Texas Children's Pavilion for Women, her lab uses a bidirectional approach (bench to bedside and vice versa) to better understand and find treatments for infertility, complications during pregnancy, and developmental disorders.

The focus of her basic research program is to understand how maternal effect mutations in genes that regulate oocyte and embryonic development can cause infertility, recurrent pregnancy failure as well as congenital defects in the offspring. Her team focuses on identifying the molecular cause of Aicardi syndrome, an elusive neurodevelopmental disorder seen primarily in girls - affects brain and eye development, causes severe seizures, and variable intellectual and developmental disability. The goal is to identify the underlying genetic variants and if identified, characterize the functional effects of these variants using a combination of animal models, in vitro cell culture methods, and patient samples.

Dr. Van den Veyver’s clinical and translational research program is primarily focused on the development and validation of novel non-invasive and genomic tests for the prenatal diagnosis of developmental disorders to improve outcomes for the mother and the baby. As the BCM site-PI of a multicenter PrenatalSEQ study, she is also engaged in evaluating the role of trio genome-wide sequencing in prenatal diagnosis and its impact on prenatal and neonatal care.