Description
KNPGC is an active private health center, providing Clinical Genetics and Anatomical Pathology services. The Clinical Genetics services include Genetic Counseling, Cytogenetics, Molecular Genetics, and Prenatal Diagnosis. The Anatomical Pathology services include surgical, and post-mortem pathology, and cytology examination.
KNPGC takes an active interest in educational and research projects, has trained more than 200 trainees and provided material for numerous theses and articles.
The lab was initially established in the summer of 1979, as a division of Massoud Laboratory, with only a few dedicated personnel, all working seriously to improve techniques, and provide up to date services. This effort gained us the trust of the physicians, and a consequent increase in the workload of the department. The clinical department improved and flourished simultaneously, resulting in the need for physical expansion. After much search and speculation, despite our inner inclinations, we made the only possible decision to separate; the Genetics, and Pathology departments were moved to a new location in Shahrak Gharb in Azar 1368 (November 1989).
The new spacious site enabled us to establish the much sought after prenatal diagnosis facilities. The first successful amniotic cell culture was on Azar 1369 (Nov. 1990). The success of our trials in PND for chromosomal disorders tempted us to extend this service further and set up collaborations for other disorders such as hemoglobinophathies and metabolic disorders (King’s College of London for prenatal diagnosis of hemoglobinopathy including Beta thalassemia and Clinical Genetics Department of Erasmus University, Rotterdam for Metabolic Disorders).
The first samples for PND of hemoglobinopathy and metabolic disorders were sent in 1988. The collaborative work we did on hemoglobinopathies soon became the framework of later investigators who were finally able to set up the techniques within the country. It is our pleasure to have been able to help more than 100 families with metabolic disorders.
Our next major development came in 1996 when Dr. Hossein Najmabadi joined us and set up the molecular genetics division, which completes our diagnostic services. He began by setting up the molecular diagnosis of hemoglobinopathies, both postnatally and prenatally. The quick and efficient development of this department’s services and its wide range of tests has been able to provide necessary aid to many families, and to widen the spectrum of our care.
As we value the trust and belief, of those physicians who put their patients in our care, and of those patients who approach us directly, providing state of the art services in the field of medical genetics has been and still remains to be our goal and principal aim. To this end we make every attempt to stay current with all recent developments and are proud to be able to say that access to all such services is available to us either at our own center, and when not possible, via collaboration and close scientific links with various prestigious scientists in centers all around the world.
It has been and still is our policy to have open doors for all interested colleagues, students and scientists, such that we have been involved in the training and education of many of our colleagues. Through these years we have had various observers, trainees, and students of different educational backgrounds. It is our intense pleasure today, to note that many pathologists, cytologists, geneticists, cytogeneticists, genetic counselors and technologists working in various centers in Iran have spent some time and part of their training with us.
Organisation's Type
Research Center, Medical Center, Diagnostic Center
