Gheona Altarescu MD

Dr. Gheona Altarescu obtained her magna cum laude diploma in Medicine at the Jassy University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Romania. She performed her training in medical genetics at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA during the years 1997 to 2000 under the supervision of Dr. Roscoe Brady. During this period of time, she treated more than 100 patients with different lysosomal storage diseases: Gaucher disease type I, II, and III, Fabry disease, Mucolipidosis type IV, Hunter, and Hurler disease, and performed basic molecular research in the field of lysosomal storage disorders.

She is board certified in clinical and molecular genetics. Upon returning to Israel she established the Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis Clinic and Lysosomal diseases Clinic at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The clinic is the largest of its kind in Israel and performed preimplantation genetic diagnoses for more than 1000 different genetic disorders including lysosomal storage diseases (Gaucher, Fabry, and Hunter syndrome) resulting in the birth of 1300 healthy children since the year 2005. Since the developments in the field of noninvasive prenatal testing, her lab is developing new techniques for very early non-invasive prenatal testing for monogenic disorders.

Gheona Altarescu has published almost 100 peer-reviewed papers in the field of lysosomal diseases and preimplantation genetic diagnosis and is currently an Associate Professor of Genetics at Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, and the Director of the Preimplantation Genetic Unit and Lysosomal diseases Clinic at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem.