Linguraru, Marius George PHD

Millions of individuals in Low-to-Middle-Income Countries are affected by birth defects, representing a major global Public Health burden. We propose innovative low-cost strategies for reducing the impact of birth defects, based on mobile, facial recognition software to screen for dysmorphic syndromes (including Down syndrome), coupled with practical genetic solutions for early diagnosis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Our partnership between Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, a DRC national research institute, and Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, will create the infrastructure of a birth defect Registry, allowing for future surveillance and intervention programs in low resource settings.