Dr. Maga is an associate professor at the University of Washington Department of Pediatrics, Division of Craniofacial Medicine. My lab investigates genetic and environmental factors that affect the development of the skull using 3D imaging and quantitative analysis. My lab also develops the 3D morphmetrics toolkit SlicerMorph for the open-source 3D image processing and computing platform 3D Slicer. 

“I find it rather surprising (and also quite alarming) to see how quickly the genetic programming for the normal development can be altered during pregnancy by the man-made environmental factors. And yet alcohol consumption during pregnancy remains a major issue and causes a significant emotional and financial burden on families and also on the society. I am currently studying how alcohol consumption prior and during pregnancy affects the normal craniofacial development in mice. In the future, this study will provide the mechanism(s) by which genes are modified through alcohol exposure and can be translated into clinical research. It will also offer the potential to find ways to better diagnose or even prevent or circumvent the negative effects of alcohol on fetal development."