Journal of Psychiatry

Nagwa Meguid

Biography

Dr. Meguid is a professor of human genetics and head of the Department of Research on Children with Special Needs at the National Research Center (NRC) in Egypt. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Genetics, and she is a Senior Geneticist at the Genetics Institute, Pasadena, California; and a fellow of Uppsala University, Sweden. She was one of five selected scientists to win the outstanding L’Oreal UNESCO Award for women in Science for Africa and the Middle East (2002). She has used her expertise to identify and describe several novel genetic syndromes. She added new syndromes to the medical literature. She was given the Distinctive Arab Female Scientist Prize, Creative Women in Genetics, by the Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain, May, 2009. She was also given the National Award for Scientific Excellence in Advanced Technology in 2009. Furthermore, she was awarded the National Research Centre Appreciation Prize in Medical Sciences in 2011. Dr. Meguid is the head and running a clinic for children with special needs in the NRC. She is one of the pioneers who accurately diagnosed, delineated and published autosomal recessive disorders in Egyptians as a consequence of the high prevalence of consanguinity. On the other hand she is the head of the laboratory of research in DNA and biochemical changes in genetic disorders. She participated in determining the spectrum of gene mutations causing common genetic disorders in Egypt (phenylketonuria, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, congenital sensorineural hearing loss and fragile-X syndrome) thus suggesting programs for their prevention by heterozygous detection and prenatal diagnosis. She is the first to delineate the prevalence of FX mutation among Egyptian males which was 0.9 per 1000. Moreover, it was 6.4% among mentally subnormal males.

Research Interest

Autism-MTHFR-Folate-Polymorphism