Among Guttmacher’s areas of expertise is the development of new approaches for translating genomics into better ways of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease.

He also maintained a busy practice in clinical genetics, conducted research, and was a tenured associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Vermont.

[4] In 1996 the NHGRI had partnered with the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association to establish the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics (NCHPEG), a non-profit coalition that promotes professional education and access to information about advances in human genetics, operating from within the genome institute.

Guttmacher directed the development of NCHPEG into a freestanding entity with 120 member organizations and its own executive director.

[3] Guttmacher is married to Brigid Coles Guttmacher, community outreach and palliative care counselor of Capital Hospice and founder of the DC Grief and Loss Network, and lives in Washington, D.C.[4] He is the son of Dr. Manfred Guttmacher, forensic psychiatrist, medical historian, and author; and of Dr. Carola Blitzman Eisenberg, past dean of Student Affairs of Harvard Medical School and dean of students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as cofounder of Physicians for Human Rights, which in 1997 shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jody Williams for their International Campaign to Ban Landmines.