Dr. Vora’s work involves using new genomic technologies to improve prenatal diagnosis.
Dr. Neeta Vora, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at UNC, received a rare perfect score on her National Institutes of Health (NIH) K23 application for “A New Era of Genomics for Prenatal Diagnosis.”
Dr. Vora’s research aims to improve the ability to make a prenatal diagnosis in pregnancies complicated by prenatal abnormalities using new genomic technologies. Her primary mentor is Dr. Jim Evans, from the Department of Genetics, and her co-mentors are Dr. Jonathan Berg in the Department of Genetics and Dr. Kim Boggess, here at UNC OB-GYN.
Dr. Vora said she was grateful to Dr. Daniel Clarke-Person, department chair, and Dr. Kate Menard, division chief for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and the UNC Center for Women’s Health Research (CWHR) for their support at UNC OB-GYN.
“I was completely shocked and thrilled to get my score!” said Dr. Vora, who is also the Director of Reproductive Genetic Services at UNC. “I am at a conference in Vancouver with 8,000 geneticists and could not be more inspired and motivated to move the field of prenatal diagnosis forward. I’m so grateful to my mentors and collaborators, my division for their support, and to UNC-Chapel Hill! Go heels!”
An NIH K23 grant provides support for the career development of investigators who have made a commitment to focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented research. This mechanism provides support, supervised study and research for clinically trained professionals who have the potential to develop into productive, clinical investigators.