Photo gallery

What is DNA? An answer to Genetics Jeopardy, Keith Jensen plays Alex Trebek with the help of Latasha Redmond as part of Questors. Questors is a Saturday morning program, sponsored by the Math-Science Center in Richmond, to expose advanced high school students to state-of-the-art science and math.

Participants of the First International Mosaic Down Syndrome Conference hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University in June of 2004. The focus of the conference is for families to gain more knowledge of Mosaic Down Syndrome. The graduate students in the Department of Human Genetics provided educational and interactive sessions for the Mosaic Down Syndrome children attending the conference.

Graduate students Veronica Kirkland, Anne Walters, Elizabeth Starkey, Karina Seidl and Amy Hawkins traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the 2004 National Society of Genetic Counselor meeting.

Latasha Redmond takes a break from her benchwork to hangout in the student computer room and socializes with other students. Latasha is the student representative for the fall of 2005.

On Aug. 29, 2004, the remnants of Hurricane Gaston swept through Central Virginia, which created heavy flooding in many parts of Richmond and the surrounding counties. Many people were stranded downtown for hours including those who worked at VCU Medical Center. The water did not recede for days after the flood especially in the hardest hit area of Shockoe Bottom, which includes the parking lot next to the train station. The city of Richmond estimates that Gaston cost $7.9 million in damages.

Kara Thomas is preparing cells for karyotype analysis with the help of Carol Wignall a cytogenetic technologist. First year genetic counseling students rotate through a variety of laboratories including cytogenetics to expose them to methods used in diagnostic genetic testing.

Paulie Papavassiliou, and M.D./Ph.D. student, shows Questors students how to prepare a karyotype. A karyotype is the pictoral representation of all the chromosomes in a cell. A picture of the chromosomes in a cell is taken and the chromosomes are cut out of the picture and aligned in pairs. Any chromosome abnormalities can be revealed by this type of analysis. The graduate students run the Human Genetics Questors unit.

While traveling in Florence, Italy, in 2004, Dr. Rita Shiang and her husband, Andy Nishida unexpectedly ran into Brett Wayman Makuta, an alumni of VCU (M.S. Genetic Counseling, 2000), traveling with her husband Tim Makuta who previously worked in the Department as a research technician. They all shared a nice dinner in Florence. Picture from left to right, Tim Makuta, Andy Nishida, Rita Shiang and Brett Wayman Makuta.