Photo courtesy of the Littlefield family
John Littlefield, a scientist and physician whose research helped bring about profound advancements in medical genetics, died from complications from dementia at his home on April 20. He was 91.
Among Littlefield’s most impactful contributions was the development of amniocentesis, a method used to diagnose genetic disorders in fetuses that involves sampling amniotic fluid for fetal DNA. This breakthrough allowed pregnant women to test for genetic diseases for the first time.
Throughout his prolific career, Littlefield contributed to many other notable scientific advances, including uncovering the role ribosomes play in protein synthesis and isolating human stem cells capable of assuming ...
