Habiba Bouhamed Chaabouni is professor of medical

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

Tunis University Tunis University ( ar, جامعة تونس, french: link=no, Université de Tunis) is a university in Tunis, Tunisia. It was founded in 1960 on the basis of earlier educational establishments. The University of Tunis is a member of the Mediterr ...

Biography

In 1981, Chaabouni created the first genetic counselling service, then launched epidemiological studies on

consanguinity Consanguinity ("blood relation", from Latin '' consanguinitas'') is the characteristic of having a kinship with another person (being descended from a common ancestor). Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are related by blood fr ...

in northern

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a region where the rate of

genetic illness A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome. It can be caused by a mutation in a single gene (monogenic) or multiple genes (polygenic) or by a chromosomal abnormality. Although polygenic disorders ...

es, of

birth defects A birth defect, also known as a congenital disorder, is an abnormal condition that is present at birth regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities can ...

and of

mortality Mortality is the state of being mortal, or susceptible to death; the opposite of immortality. Mortality may also refer to: * Fish mortality, a parameter used in fisheries population dynamics to account for the loss of fish in a fish stock throug ...

was particularly elevated. Her studies demonstrated that in this region, a quarter of the marriages involved first cousins whose parents were themselves siblings. In 1993, she put in place a medical genetics service and consulting practise with the goal of influencing people to request

prenatal diagnosis Prenatal testing consists of prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis, which are aspects of prenatal care that focus on detecting problems with the pregnancy as early as possible. These may be anatomic and physiologic problems with the health of ...

testing. Her work enabled the identification of new

genetic mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

s involved with different pathologies. She has published over 100 research articles and is author or co-author of 50 peer-reviewed articles. At the same time, she created a graduate program in genetics at the Faculty of Medicine at

. In 2006, she was a recipient of the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science. She has been a consultant for the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

(WHO), and the League of Arab Nations. Chaabouni has been active in many international initiatives related to hereditary disease. She has also done work to promote

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

's Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights. She is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, and the European Society of Cytogenetics. In her own words:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouhamed Chaabouni, Habiba Tunisian biologists Tunisian women scientists Tunisian geneticists Academic staff of Tunis University Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Women geneticists L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates 21st-century women scientists