ACMG Foundation, Genzyme announce recipients of Medical Genetics Training Award

Carlos E. Prada, MD of Cincinnati Children's Hospital and James D. Weisfeld-Adams, MD of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY were honored as the 2012-2013 recipients of the Genzyme/ACMG Foundation Medical Genetics Training Award in Clinical Biochemical Genetics at the ACMG 2012 Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting in Charlotte, NC.

The objective of the two Genzyme/ACMG Foundation Awards is to support a national training program to encourage the recruitment and training of clinicians in the field of clinical biochemical genetics and especially in the diagnosis, management and treatment of individuals with metabolic diseases. For the first time, two awardees will be given the opportunity to participate in an in-depth clinical experience at a premier medical center with expertise and significant clinical volume in the area of biochemical genetics.

The Award grants $75,000 per year to each of two recipients selected by the ACMG Foundation through a competitive process and will provide for the sponsorship of one year of the trainees' clinical genetics subspecialty in biochemical genetics following residency.

Dr. Prada is currently undertaking a combined residency/fellowship in Pediatrics and Genetics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. He said, "I am very interested in clinical research of lysosomal diseases. The goal of my proposed research is to characterize imaging and serum biomarkers in individuals with MPSs with the future goal of identifying individuals at risk for cardiovascular complications and early initiation of therapies to improve outcomes." Dr. Prada completed his Doctor of Medicine at Universidad Industrial de Santander in Colombia and a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cancer Research at University of California, San Diego.

The second award recipient, Dr. Weisfeld-Adams, received his medical degree from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and postgraduate training at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, Scotland. More recently, he completed a combined residency/fellowship in Pediatrics and Medical Genetics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and has recently been appointed to the clinical faculty at Mount Sinai. His research focuses on combined methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria, cbl C type (cobalamin C disease). His research aims to characterize the neuropathology of this disease, focusing in particular in the role of oxidative injury, disordered myelin biology, and hyperhomocysteinemia. An animal model of the disorder is under development, and, in a multidisciplinary collaboration with several other investigators, Dr. Weisfeld-Adams has initiated a clinical natural history study evaluating various aspects of the neurologic phenotype in a cohort of children and adults with this disease.

"The Genzyme/ACMG Foundation Clinical Genetics Award in Clinical Biochemical Genetics is critical to the development of the genetics workforce. Through this financial award we are supporting the education of those who are working to advance biochemical research and to develop new standards of practice in medical genetics in the United States which will both improve health and save lives," said R. Rodney Howell, MD, FACMG, president of the ACMG Foundation.

Source: ACMG Foundation