Bettina Meiser

Bettina Meiser is an Australian geneticist. She is a professor at the University of New South Wales, with expertise in the psychosocial aspects of genetics; cancer, hereditary cancer, and the impact of genetic counselling and testing.

Career Meiser has a BAppSc, BA (Hons) and PhD (Syd).

Her specific fields of research include cancer genetics, health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology and Psychiatry (incl. psychotherapy).

“There aren’t really any specialised genetic counsellors who cover psychiatric illnesses in Australia”, she said in an interview, in 2019. “The vast majority of genetic counsellors do prenatal genetic counselling or cancer genetic counselling. So we identified a gap and for that reason we set up this website to cater for what we believe is a sizeable group of people.”

Her scientific standing is demonstrated by her contributions to the following scientific boards, ethics and research committees:

Executive Advisory Board, Breast Cancer Campaign, United Kingdom, since 2012 Psychosocial Section Editor, European Journal of Human Genetics, since 2011 Member of Editorial Board, Familial Cancer, since 2013 Member of Scientific Committee for International Meetings on Psychosocial Aspects of Hereditary Cancer, since 2007 Chair, Human Research Ethics Committee, The Cancer Council of New South Wales, 2003–2012 Cancer Research Committee, The Cancer Council of New South Wales, 2008–2012 Secretary, Ethical and Social Issues Committee, Human Genetics Society of Australasia, 2005–2012 Scientific Advisory Committee, Psycho-Oncology Cooperative Group (PoCoG), 2007–2010 based on her work published in the journal BMC Psychiatry. Her work on risk of depression was published in Lab+Life Scientist magazine. The website for family depression and its production are described in a video by Good Eye Dear.