This newsletter aims to facilitate communication within the Department of Human & Molecular Genetics, and was conceived by the Research Retreat Committee in 2006. Please send items for the next edition to Linda Downes-Piazza at ldownes@vcu.edu.
Ph.D. in Human Genetics Khaled Alsayegh from King Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia Aditi Chiplunkar from University of Pune, Pune, India Albert H. Kim from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California Jacquelyn Meyers from Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida Roseann Peterson from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ph.D. and M.S. in Genetic Counseling Program
Jia Yan from Rutgers, New Brunswick, New Jersey
M.S. in Human Genetics
Yousef Alhashem from King Saud University, KSA, Riyadh Ryan Bennett from University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
M.S. in Genetic Counseling
Alicia Carlson from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio Anne Christine Cordero from University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia Jessica Ivey from University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia Veena Mathur from University of Houston, Houston, Texas Mindy Preston from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Certificate Program
Brooke Burns from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California Susan Capewell from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia Rachel Dodson from Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Virginia Holly Paddock from University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
Student Presentations
Sarah Bergen presented a poster titled "Age-Related Changes in Heritability of Behavioral Phenotypes Over Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A Meta-Analysis" at the Behavior Genetics Association meeting in Amsterdam from June 3-6. Her attendance was thanks to travel grants from BGA and VCU Graduate School/Human Genetics.
Santhosh Girirajan has been invited to give a platform presentation at the American Society of Human Genetics meeting in October in San Diego. The title of his talk: "Growth retardation, hyperactivity, abnormal anxiety-related responses, and impaired neuromuscular and sensorineural coordination in a mouse model overexpressing Rai1."
Latasha Redmond (Ph.D. student) and Tina Lung (M.S., ANAT) attended the Red Cell Gordon Conference in Aussois, France, in May, and each presented a poster on their work in Joyce Lloyd's laboratory.
Jessica Waxler, a genetic counseling student, is pictured on the front cover of the Summer 2007 Scarab magazine (which is published for MCV campus alumni). Jessica is a VA LEND trainee, and there is an accompanying article on the VCU Partnership for People with Disabilities. She is shown receiving advice on her master’s project Gene Smart with committee member and LEND faculty, Jayne Shepherd.
Scooper Bowl XV at the Science Museum of Virginia
Genetic counseling students and Dr. Joann Bodurtha participated in Scooper Bowl XV at the Science Museum of Virginia on Saturday, June 23rd. They had an exhibit titled "Genetics Help: 5 cents". It was an interactive activity that served as a fun introduction to family health history awareness by highlighting the possible genetics of "brain freeze" and lactose intolerance.
Dr. Lindon Eaves recently returned from the Queensland Institute for Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia. He had been invited to teach a course on his recent work in statistical genetics to faculty and students in the Genetic Epidemiology program at QIMR. The program is headed by Dr. Nicholas Martin who was once a faculty member in Human Genetics at VCU. His wife, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, obtained her Ph.D. in Human Genetics at VCU more than 20 years ago. She is now NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and a leader in breast cancer research. A collaborative project between VCU and QIMR has studied over 60,000 twins and relatives of twins in the U.S. and Australia designed to separate the genetic and social effects of parents on the health and life styles of the next generation.
Dr. Joyce Lloyd presented a talk entitled "EKLF and KLF2 in primitive erythropoiesis" at the Red Cell Gordon Conference in Aussois, France, in May 2007.
Dr. Arti Pandya presented a talk on " Impact of Testing for Hereditary Deafness on the Consumer: Results of a U.S. National Survey" at the 6th International Conference on Molecular Biology of Hearing and Deafness, in July 2007 at the Wellcome Trust Conference Center, Hinxton, UK.
Grants Funded
Dr. Joann Bodurtha and her team received a three year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to promote awareness of participation in safe, effective, evidence-based research among health care leaders, providers, and families of children with specific health care needs such as neurodevelopmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorders and genetic conditions.
Dr. James Lister recently received a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health. The project is titled
“Site-Specific Transgenesis in Zebrafish”.
Dr. Joyce Lloyd is the Principal Investigator on a recently funded grant from the National Institutes of Health titled "Role of KLF2 in Erythopoiesis and Globin Gene Regulation." The other VCU faculty members who are investigators on this project are Drs. Gordon Ginder, Jack Haar, Steve Sawyer and Jolene Windle. The group will study the roles of transcription factors in red blood cell development and globin gene expression, using mouse models.
*Basu, P., *Lung, T., Lemsaddek, W., Giang Sargent, T., Williams, D.C. Jr., Basu, M., Redmond, L.C., Lingrel, J. B, Haar, J.L. and Lloyd, J.A. EKLF and KLF2 have compensatory roles in embryonic beta-globin gene expression and primitive erythropoiesis, Blood First Edition Paper, prepublished online August 3, 2007; DOI 10.1182/blood-2006-11-057307 (2007) *The first two authors contributed equally to this work.
Sarah E. Bergen, Charles O. Gardner, Kenneth S. Kendler (2007) Age-Related Changes in Heritability of Behavioral Phenotypes Over Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A Meta-Analysis. Twin Research and Human Genetics. 10(3): 423-433.
Joann N. Bodurtha, MD, MPH; John M. Quillin, PhD, MPH; Kelly A. Tracy, PhD; Joseph Borzelleca, MD; Donna McClish, PhD; Diane Baer Wilson, EdD, MS, RD; Resa M. Jones, PhD, MPH; Julie Quillin, MT, BA; and Deborah Bowen, PhD. Recruiting Diverse Patients to a Breast Cancer Risk Communication Trial - Waiting Rooms Can Improve Access. J of the Nat'l Medical Assoc, Vol. 99, No. 8, pgs 917-922, Aug 2007.
Emily A. Edelman, Santhosh Girirajan, Brenda Finucane, Pragna Patel, James R. Lupski, Ann C. M. Smith, and Sarah H. Elsea (2007) "Gender, genotype, and phenotype differences in Smith-Magenis syndrome: A meta-analysis of 105 cases," Clin. Genet., 71: 540-550.
Santhosh Girirajan, Roberto Mendoza-Londono, Norma Nowak, David K. Bunyan, Eli Hatchwell, and Sarah H. Elsea (2007) "Smith-Magenis syndrome and moyamoya disease in a patient with del(17)(p11.2p13.1)," Am .J. Med. Genet., Part A May 1;143(9): 999-1008.
Santhosh Girirajan, Stephen R. Williams, James Y. Garbern, Norma Nowak, Eli Hatchwell, and Sarah H. Elsea (2007) "17p11.2p12 triplication and del(17)q11.2q12 in a severely affected child with dup(17)p11.2p12 syndrome," Clin. Genet., Jul;72(1):47-58.
Hoa T. Truong, Sara S.. Kohal, Kevin R. Baker, Santhosh Girirajan, Stephen R. Williams, Christopher, N. Vlangos, David J. Bunyan, Ann C.M. Smith, Christopher L. Blanchard, and Sarah H. Elsea (2007) "Diagnosing Smith-Magenis syndrome and duplication 17p11.2 syndrome by RAI1 gene copy number variation using quantitative real-time PCR." J of Genetic Testing (in press).
Dr. Peter Hatemi has joined the Department as a post-doctoral student working with Dr. Eaves. Dr. Hatemi obtained his PhD in Political Science from the University of Nebraska and is conducting research on the role of genes and family environment in the development of social attitudes and behavior.
