Val C. Sheffield, MD, PhD

Specialty: Pediatrics and Medical Genetics

Professor of Pediatrics and Ophthalmology
Martin & Ruth Carver Chair in Genetics
Howard Hughes Medical Investigator
Director, Division of Medical Genetics, Children's Hospital of Iowa

Campus Address

4181 MERF
(319) 335-6898

Education

• Bachelors degree: Zoology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
• Masters degree: Developmental Biology, Brigham Young University
• PhD, biochemistry, University of Chicago
• Medical School: University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago

Post Graduate Education

• Fellowship: Medical Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA

Certification

• American Board of Medical Genetics
  • Clinical Genetics
  • Clinical Molecular Genetics

Research Interests & Current Projects

• Hereditary blindness
• Obesity
• Cardiovascular disease
• Austism
• Bardet-Biedl syndrome
• Research centers on utilizing genetic methods to identify and understand the function of genes that cause both monogenic and complex genetic diseases including conditions such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and cardiovascular diseases.

  Working with research collaborators from around the world, Dr. Sheffield's laboratory was responsible for identifying multiple genes that cause certain features of Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS), a disorder consisting of retinal degeneration, obesity and congenital anomalies. The laboratory has also developed numerous animal models of BBS and other hereditary disorders. The study of BBS has also provided clues to understanding processes that also are involved in common conditions such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension.