Professor Frances Flinter is a consultant Clinical Geneticist and Caldicott Guardian at Guy’s & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and she has a personal chair in Clinical Genetics at King’s College, London. She trained at Guy’s Hospital Medical School and worked in paediatrics before a 3 year doctoral research post in the Paediatric Research Unit at Guy’s mapping the gene for Alport’s syndrome (hereditary nephritis with deafness) led to specialisation in clinical genetics. Her particular interests include the genetics of inherited renal disease and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Frances is the consultant geneticist on the Guy’s PGD team, which is the largest and most successful in the UK; more than 350 healthy babies have now been born as a result of this programme. From 2000 – 2007 Prof. Flinter was also the clinical director of the Evelina Children’s Hospital.
Prof. Flinter has been a member of the Human Genetics Commission since 2005 and chaired two working parties on the regulation of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing and preconception genetic screening. She was also a member of the working group that produced a report on reproductive decisions and genetic technologies called ‘Making Babies’.
Prof. Flinter is a member of the Commissioning Advisory Group of the UK Genetic Testing Network and of the Human Genome Strategy Group, past President of the Clinical Genetics Society and a former member of the antenatal subgroup of National Screening Committee. She is also currently a member of a Nuffield Council on Bioethics working party on the use of PGD to exclude mitochondrial disorders.
Prof. Flinter has provided advice on genetic services in Qatar and Hong Kong and given invited presentations on genetic tests in the European parliament and the Czech parliament.
Relevant publications on PGD
- Braude P and Flinter FA (2007) Use and misuse of preimplantation genetic diagnosis BMJ 335: 752-754
- Braude P, Pickering S, Flinter F, Ogilvie CM. (2002) Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. Nature Reviews: Genetics 3, 941-953
- Flinter FA. Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. (2001) BMJ, 322, 1008 – 9
Human Genetics Commission Reports
- Increasing options, informing choice
- http://www.hgc.gov.uk/Client/document.asp?DocId=315&CAtegoryId=10
- Making Babies: reproductive decisions and genetic technologies
- http://www.hgc.gov.uk/Client/document.asp?DocId=112&CAtegoryId=10
- A Common Framework of Principles for direct-to-consumer genetic testing services
http://www.hgc.gov.uk/Client/document.asp?DocId=280&CAtegoryId=10