In 1960, Dr. Uchida was appointed Director of the Department of Medical Genetics at the Children's Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba and began teaching at University of Manitoba. After scientists in France discovered that people with Down syndrome had 47 chromosomes instead of the normal 46, she decided to investigate the cause of the extra chromosome. Cytogenetics, the study of chromosomes in cells, focuses on the identification and behavior of chromosomes, and Dr. Uchida was the first scientist to bring this technique to Canada. During ward rounds in the nursery to discuss cytogenetics of Down syndrome as well as a birth-defect syndrome found to be caused by trisomy 18, Dr. Uchida investigated the possibility of a newborn with this birth defect. She persuaded her lab, then studying chromosomes of fruit flies, to study the chromosomes from the blood sample taken from the nursery, found trisomy, and started Canada's first clinical cytogenetics program.