Biography

Dr. Jaime Frías is a board-certified pediatrician and medical geneticist with sub-specialty certification in clinical genetics and cytogenetics. He is a visiting scientist in the  Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. 

A native of Chile, Dr. Frías received his medical degree from the University of Chile, where he also completed his pediatric residency training. He subsequently came to the United States to train in dysmorphology and clinical genetics with the late David W. Smith at the universities of Wisconsin, in Madison, WI, and Washington, in Seattle, WA. After spending two years at the University of Concepción, Chile, Dr. Frías moved permanently to the United States as a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, FL. There, he became a professor of Pediatrics and Head of the Division of Genetics in 1976. In 1986 he was appointed Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In 1991, he returned to Florida as Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of South Florida, in Tampa, FL, occupying this position until 1999. He subsequently became the Director of the Birth Defects Center at this institution and retired from this position in 2004. He is currently an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at the University of South Florida and serves as a visiting scientist in the Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Frías is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. He is a member of numerous academic societies, which include the American Pediatric Society, the American Society of Human Genetics, and the Teratology Society. He is also a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and an honorary member of the Spanish Pediatric Society. 

Dr. Frías' main areas of interest have been the definition of patterns of malformation and the epidemiology of birth defects. He has authored or co-authored over 150 scientific articles and chapters in books in the fields of genetics, dysmorphology, and teratology. 

Dr. Frías can be contacted at jnf6@cdc.gov.