Areas of interest

Medical genetics; Teratology; Embryology

Education

• PhD
• M.Sc.
• B.S.

Biography

Richard H. Finnell holds the William T. Butler, M.D. Distinguished Chair in the Center for Precision Environmental Health at Baylor College of Medicine. A pediatric geneticist, Dr. Finnell has academic appointments in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, and in the Department of Medicine. During his 45+-year career, he has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Science, Nature Genetics, Nature Cell Biology, PNAS and Developmental Cell. These publications cover a spectrum of work that includes investigating those environmental (nutritional, pharmaceutical and agrochemical) factors that disrupt embryonic development. My work takes advantage of my training as a pediatric geneticist (ABMGG certified 1980), as well as my education grounded in developmental and molecular biology and teratology. My laboratory uses multiple contemporary genomic approaches to create novel transgenic mouse models and to dissect out critical events during embryonic development that result in structural malformations. The current focus of the laboratory is to utilize gene-editing approaches in stem cells to treat complex congenital malformations and unique genetic defects in the one carbon metabolic pathway. His ongoing research efforts are funded by multiple grants from the US National Institutes of Health. Most recently, Dr. Finnell was honored with a Lifetime Achievement of Excellence Award by the International Federation of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.