Dr. Qurratulain (Annie) Hasan is among India’s foremost geneticists, whose career spanning more than three decades has fundamentally shaped the landscape of medical genetics and genetic counselling in the country. A Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc), she is best known as the Founder and President of the Board of Genetic Counselling, India (BGCI) and as the architect of the nation’s first full-time postgraduate programme in genetic counselling. Her contributions to research, clinical practice, and institution-building have established her as a transformative figure in Indian genomic medicine.
Dr. Hasan was raised and educated in Hyderabad, completing both her Master of Science and her PhD in Genetics at Osmania University — one of the oldest and most distinguished universities in South Asia. Though detailed accounts of her family life remain outside public documentation, her formative years in Hyderabad, with its deep-rooted tradition of learning, evidently nurtured the scientific temperament that has defined her career. On completing her doctorate, she received a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, one of India’s leading genomics research institutions. Seeking international experience, she then spent eight years at the Wellington Medical School in New Zealand, where she developed advanced expertise in molecular genetics and clinical diagnostics — an exposure that profoundly shaped her approach to genetics as both a research discipline and a patient-centred clinical service.
Dr. Hasan returned to India to join Kamineni Hospitals, Hyderabad, in April 2001, where she established and led the Department of Genetics and Molecular Medicine as its Senior Consultant and Head. She has also served as Research Director of the Kamineni Group and as Principal in Postgraduate Medical Education at the institution. Under her stewardship, the department grew into a comprehensive genetics unit encompassing molecular and cytogenetic laboratories, antenatal and newborn screening programmes, and cancer genetics services. In parallel, she has been associated with the Department of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at Vasavi Medical and Research Centre, Hyderabad, and in 2015, she founded SAAZ Genetics Private Limited, an online platform providing genetic counselling and information to patients, families, and healthcare professionals across India.
Her research interests span molecular pathology in cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes-related complications, pharmacogenomics, stem cell biology, rare disorders, imprinting disorders, and reproductive genetics. Over her career, she has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed international publications and contributed to three book chapters. She has supervised 21 doctoral candidates as principal guide and co-guided ten more, while mentoring over 500 students and faculty across BTech, MSc, DNB, and PhD programmes — a pedagogical investment that has helped build a generation of trained geneticists in India.
Dr. Hasan’s most enduring institutional contribution is the establishment of the Board of Genetic Counselling, India (BGCI), which she founded in March 2014 and has presided over since. Recognising that India lacked a standardised credentialling framework for genetic counsellors, she conceived the BGCI as a platform to bring practitioners from clinical genetics, laboratory-based counselling, and oncogenetics under a shared professional standard. The Board has since become a focal point for the profession, organising annual international conferences, developing training programmes, and aligning with national skill development initiatives, including Skill India. This landmark endeavour was built on an earlier foundation: in 2007, Dr. Hasan had founded and coordinated India’s first full-time Postgraduate Certificate Course in Medical and Genetic Counselling — a pioneering initiative that preceded, and in many ways made possible, the formal establishment of the BGCI.
In more recent years, Dr. Hasan has extended her work into the domain of genomic data governance. As part of the international study Your DNA, Your Say, she led the analysis of Indian data to examine how public awareness of DNA shapes willingness to share genomic information. Her findings demonstrated that gender, age, and educational attainment are decisive variables in shaping DNA awareness and trust — insights with significant implications for India’s emerging genomic data policy and regulatory frameworks.
In recognition of her contributions to science, Dr. Hasan holds the Fellowship of the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc), the country’s foremost scientific honour in this domain. She has delivered invited lectures at major international forums, including Human Genetics Asia 2023 (HGA2023) in Japan and the UAE Genetic Diseases Association’s 8th International Genetic Disorders Conference in Dubai in 2024 — engagements that attest to her standing as a respected and influential voice in the global genetics and genetic counselling community. Through her research, clinical work, and institution-building, Dr Qurratulain Hasan has not only advanced the science of genetics in India but has also helped lay the professional and ethical foundations of genetic counselling as a formal discipline in the country.