Professor Lyn Chitty made a Dame in New Year’s Honours

Professor Lyn Chitty has been made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to medicine in the 2023 New Year’s Honours. The North Thames GLH are incredibly proud to have had Professor Dame Lyn as our Medical Director until 2022 and would like to offer our congratulations for this well-deserved honour!

Professor Dame Lyn has been a driving force to bringing genomic testing to patients across the North Thames, including through her direction of the 100,000 Genomes Project and the establishment of the Genomic Medicine Service in the region.

Under her leadership as Clinical Director of the North Thames Genomic Medicine Centre, the region played a vital part in the delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project, recruiting 28% (>10,000 people and their relatives) of all the rare disease participants in the project. She led the establishment of the Genomic Medicine Service in the North Thames, consolidating and developing our existing genetic testing laboratory services and enabling the start of whole genome sequencing on the NHS. This work is already improving diagnosis and prognosis for those living with many rare conditions, as well as changing how we diagnose and manage many types of cancer.

‘I am really surprised and delighted to be awarded this honour. It is really amazing and I still can’t quite believe it, but I don’t believe one gets this level of recognition alone and for me it is very much a reflection of the great people and teams I have worked with over the years. My thanks goes to them for all the hard work and support they have given. This honour really is a reflection of great team work!’

Commented Professor Dame Lyn.

Professor Dame Lyn has been based at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH) since the 1980s and is the UK’s only Professor of Genetics and Fetal Medicine. She has pioneered research into rapid and non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, offering families lower risk options to find out about the health of their unborn child.

She continues to shape how advances in genomic technologies and methods are delivered to patients through her role as Deputy Director of the NIHR GOSH Biomedical Research Centre and ongoing research. Through the NIHR GOSH BRC Genomic Medicine Theme, interdisciplinary teams from across GOSH, UCL GOS ICH and national partners of the Paediatric Excellence Initiative use advances in genomic technologies and methods to support effective diagnosis both before and after birth, in order to identify the underlying cause of some childhood conditions and thereby improve care to reduce the burden of disease.

Her current research at UCL GOS ICH is shaping how prenatal genetic diagnosis based on analysis of cell-free DNA in maternal blood can be implemented in routine care. Her work has always tried to take account of the patient view, with patients and lay support organisations involved in her research and leading workstreams so that their voice is heard.

To find out more about Professor Dame Lyn’s work, read the announcement from Great Ormond Street Hospital here: https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/news/professor-lyn-chitty-made-a-dame-in-new-years-honours/