Graduated in Medicine at the Universidade Federal Fluminense in 1969, she is Specialist in Clinical Genetics, obtained the PhD degree at Universidade de São Paulo (1976). Full Professor at the Department of Genetics at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro since 1989. She had a post-doctoral with Maximilian Muenke at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, performing research on holoprosencephaly. Main research interests are in the field of clinical dismorphology and epidemiology of congenital malformations, mainly working with material from Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC). She also works in the area of molecular epidemiology of birth defects and is a member of the Steering Committee of the National Institute of Population Medical Genetics (INAGEMP).