Clair A. Francomano is an American medical geneticist and academic specializing in Ehlers–Danlos syndromes. She is Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Indiana University.[1]

Early life, education and training

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Clair Ann Francomano was born to Mrs. and Charles J. Francomano, a general practitioner.[2][3] She attended Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, New York and participated in programs at the National Institutes of Health and the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine as a high school student.[3] She earned her undergraduate degree from Yale College in 1976,[1] having returned as an undergraduate to the Jackson Laboratory to study cancer genetics on a National Science Foundation grant in 1973.[3] She then earned her M.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1980.[1] She trained at Hopkins in internal medicine and medical genetics.[1]

Career

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Francomano joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in 1984.[1] In 1994, she moved to the National Institutes of Health to become chief of the Medical Genetics Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute; from 1996 to 2001 she was its clinical director.[4][1] From 2001 to 2005 she was Chief of the Human Genetics and Integrative Medicine Section in the Laboratory of Genetics, National Institute on Aging.[1] While at NIH, she launched a natural history study of Ehlers–Danlos syndromes that lasted for more than two decades.[1] She also worked on the Human Genome Project.[5]

In 2005, Francomano became director of adult genetics for the Harvey Institute of Human Genetics of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.[6][7] She later became director of its Ehlers-Danlos National Foundation Center for Clinical Care and Research.[1][4]

Francomano has been a member of the Steering Committee for the International Consortium on the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes and Related Conditions.[1] Since 2016, she has chaired the Consortium’s Committee on Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.[1]

In 2019 she joined Indiana University as professor of medical and molecular genetics at the School of Medicine and director of the Residency Training Program in Genetics.[1]

Notable publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Clair A. Francomano, MD". medicine.iu.edu. Indians University. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  2. ^ "University of Guam seminar will feature famed geneticist". Pacific Daily News. 2014-06-29. pp. A13. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  3. ^ a b c "Microbe hunter". The Herald Statesman. 1973-08-23. p. 19. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  4. ^ a b Boodman, Sandra G. (November 14, 2020). "The unusually flexible joints that gave her a boost in gymnastics portended a malady that took years to diagnose". The Washington Post.
  5. ^ "Life's big 'instruction book' raises hopes and fears". Chicago Tribune. 1998-07-26. p. 252. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  6. ^ Cohn, Meredith (December 7, 2018). "GBMC forms center to hunt for treatments, cure for a rare genetic disease". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2018-12-08. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
  7. ^ "Dr. Clair A. Francomano". The Baltimore Sun. 2005-10-28. pp. D4. Retrieved 2021-12-22.