Christina Laukaitis is an associate professor in the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Dr. Laukaitis earned her MD and PhD from the University of Illinois. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, IN and a Medical Genetics fellowship at the University of Washington. She joined the faculty at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in 2008.
Dr. Laukaitis is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Genetics and leads the clinical genetics efforts for the Department of Medicine and the Center for Applied Genetics and Genomics. She is the program director for the Molecular Genetic Pathology Fellowship program and is medical education director for the outreach core of the Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention.
Dr. Laukaitis’ research has both basic and applied aspects. Her basic science work focuses on an unstable region of the mouse genome containing 64 genes encoding pheromones. Her clinical practice and research focus on diagnosing and managing patients with genetic syndromes. She has worked to understand the contribution of genetics to breast cancer in women of Mexican ancestry and cares for people at high risk of cancer because of inherited gene mutations. She also cares for a large cohort of people with various forms of Ehlers Danlos syndrome and has organized the hEDS GENE study, a major effort to identify genes predicting the hypermobility subtype of EDS.