Senior Scientist and Study Center Project Officer
National Children's Study
Dr. Kasten is a pediatrician trained in both Clinical Genetics (University of Michigan) and Clinical Biochemical Genetics (National Human Genome Research Institute). She is currently on detail to the National Children’s Study from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program, where she manages a multi-center research project, the Cancer Genetics Network. While on detail as Senior Scientist and Study Center Project Officer for the National Children’s Study, Dr. Kasten continues to collaborate with intramural NCI on the Chinese Cohort Studies and sees patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
In the 1980s, Dr. Kasten lived in Paris and worked at the Necker - Enfants Malades hospital, where she published the first paper comparing the efficacy of balloon valvuloplasty vs. surgical repair of critical aortic stenosis. Later on she worked at NIH managing the congenital heart disease portfolio and co-authored two RFAs, one of which lead to the discovery of the DiGeorge chromosomal microdeletion in conotruncal malformations.