News
June 22, 2009
2008 State of the Genomic Medicine Institute Address
Charis Eng, M.D., Ph.D. presented the State of the GMI to the department, their adjunct faculty, members of LRI and CCF, and members of the GMI’s External Advisory Board for Business and Development Efforts. The presentation highlighted GMI’s accomplishments of 2008 and the goals for 2009. The presentation is available for viewing here (PDF file).
June 11, 2009
Dr. Eng delivers the citatory for the 2009 Ernst Oppenheimer Award of the Endocrine Society, Washington, DC
Charis Eng, MD, PhD, Sondra J. and Stephen R. Hardis Chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute, delivered the citation for the 2009 Oppenheimer Award conferred on Constantine A. Stratakis, MD, DSc, for his work on the genetics of pediatric endocrine neoplasias. He was cited for his cutting edge work on Carney Complex and relating it to regulation of protein kinase A signaling. The Ernst Oppenheimer Award is given by The Endocrine Society each year to honor a young investigator for outstanding achievements in endocrine research. The recipient must not have reached the age of 45 during the year of the award. Dr. Eng was the 2006 Oppenheimer laureate when she was cited for her outstanding decade-long research on RET testing in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 as the paradigm for the practice of clinical cancer genetics and for her elegant work with Hartmut Neumann, MD, on the delineation of genotype and phenotypic spectra of the genes encoding succinate dehydrogenase and predisposition to pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma.
June 6, 2009
American Thyroid Association Practice Guidelines Task Force, of which Dr. Eng is a member, publishes its first comprehensive guidelines for medullary thyroid cancer
Charis Eng, MD, PhD, Chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute, was one of a selected national and international task force of 11 physicians, surgeons and physician-scientists that wrote an authoritative and comprehensive American Thyroid Association Practice Guidelines for Medullary Thyroid Cancer, which appeared in the June issue of Thyroid. These guidelines, which took 2 years to write, and be reviewed and endorsed by many professional medical societies nationally and internationally, are unique amongst practice guidelines. They include applying genetic and genomic information for medical and surgical management for medullary thyroid cancer for the affected patient as well as as yet unaffected family members. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Eng was a co-discoverer that RET is a predisposing gene for medullary thyroid cancer. As an independent investigator, she was one of two co-chairs of the International RET Mutation Consortium that characterized the genotype and clinical features that led to RET testing becoming the paradigm for cancer genetic testing in clinical practice. Of note, these guidelines recommend that all presentations of this thyroid cancer be offered RET gene testing in the setting of genetic counseling.
May 26, 2009
Dr. Aldred presents at Pulmonary Hypertension Breakthrough Initiative
Dr. Michaela Aldred, a specialist in translational human genetics, presented her talk entitled “Acquired Chromosome Abnormalities in the Lungs of Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension” at the meeting in Detroit, Michigan, on May 26, 2009. The meeting attendees comprised a select group of national leaders in the pulmonary hypertension field, who hailed Dr. Aldred’s data as paradigm-shifting for this field.
May 21, 2009
Dr. Eng delivers lecture at the Director’s Innovation Seminar Series at NIMH
Charis Eng, MD, PhD the Sondra J. and Stephen R. Hardis Chair of Cancer Genomic Medicine and founding Chairwoman of the Genomic Medicine Institute, delivered the closing lecture at the NIMH Director’s Innovation Seminar Series entitled, “I say genetics, you say genomics: what does it matter to us? (And are we ready?).” Introduced by NCI Director, John Niederhuber, MD, Dr. Eng discussed the principles and practice of validated personalized genetic healthcare and the challenges and opportunities of emerging genomics for healthcare. During her visit, she was also interviewed by NIMH Associate Director, Phil Wang, MD, for NIMH’s traditional VOD-cast series “Robinson Fireside Chats”.
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Click here to download the current issue of Translations, the newsletter of the Genomic Medicine Institute. In this issue you will find:
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Apr 28, 2009
Charis Eng, MD, PhD selected for the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship
Charis Eng, MD, PhD, the Sondra J. and Stephen R. Hardis Chair of Cancer Genomic Medicine and founding Chairwoman of the Genomic Medicine Institute, has been named as the American Cancer Society (ACS) Professor of Clinical Cancer Research. This honor, only awarded to two or three people each year, is the ACS's highest award, and it recognizes a researcher's contributions to science and to patient care, and supports their work in mentoring future generations of researchers. At any one time, there are no more than 15 ACS Clinical Research Professors in the country. This multi-year grant, which begins July 1, 2009, will support Dr. Eng’s work on the genetics of the hamartoma-tumor syndromes and genomics-based cancer risk assessment in patient care. She says, “I am deeply honored by the receipt of this Professorship. This is really recognition for my team and my many mentees, past and present. I wish to especially acknowledge Ying Ni, HHMI predoctoral fellow, Kristi Bennett, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, Brandie Heald Leach, MS, CGC, genetic counselor, Mohammed Orloff, PhD, Project Scientist, and Donna Hansel, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology, for participating in the site visit.”
Apr. 23-24, 2009
Dr. Eng delivered one of two Keynote Addresses at the NCI Workshop on Tumor Microenvironment
Charis Eng, MD, PhD, the Sondra J. and Stephen R. Hardis Chair of Cancer Genomic Medicine and founding Chairwoman of the Genomic Medicine Institute, delivered the Keynote Address entitled, “Genomic alterations in solid tumor microenvironment and clinical outcome.” The purpose of this workshop was to hear brief updates from a subset of investigators funded by the NCI in the tumor microenvironment field and to determine next steps.
Mar 30, 2009
Charis Eng, MD, PhD delivered two invited lectures at the Annual Meeting of the American College of
Medical Genetics
, March 25, 2009
Charis Eng, MD, PhD, the Sondra J. and Stephen R. Hardis Chair of Cancer Genomic Medicine and founding Chairwoman of the Genomic Medicine Institute, and Director of the Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare within the GMI, presented the opening lecture on “Heritable Breast and Colon Cancer Syndromes: Not Just the Usual Suspects” at the College’s Educational Workshop to update the audience of the very broad genetic differential diagnosis of breast cancer as well as colon cancer, their clinical and molecular diagnosis, risk assessment, and medical management. Later that day, Dr. Eng presented at the Adult SIG Forum on Direct-to-Consumer Genomics and reviewed the issues, challenges and opportunities of this disruptive force to healthcare.
Mar. 5, 2009
Kristi L. Bennett, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Eng lab in the Genomic Medicine Institute was selected for one of the AACR-AFLAC, Inc. Scholar-in-Training Awards in the amount of $1,000 for her submitted abstract entitled, “Activator protein 2 alpha (AP2α)-targeted methylation and silencing of relevant genes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) pathogenesis” to be presented at platform session at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Denver, CO.
Feb. 23-24, 2009
Charis Eng, MD, PhD, Hardis Chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute presented the keynote address entitled “Genetics of pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma” at the International Pediatric Inherited Cancer Syndromes Workshop, Houston, TX. Apart from being updated on the topic, this Workshop also discussed a consensus on cancer surveillance for children at risk for genetic cancers.
December 5, 2008
Charis Eng, MD, PhD presents at the 7th Dr. Roizen Cleveland Clinic Integrative Medicine and Wellness Summit, Chicago, IL
Charis Eng, MD, PhD, Hardis Chair, GMI presented an invited plenary lecture entitled, “Genetics and genomic medicine in healthcare: are we ready for prime time?” at Cleveland Clinic’s Integrative Medicine and Wellness Summit. She outlined the current state-of-the-art use of genetics in guiding and changing medical management in everyday healthcare. Attention was also drawn to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and its broad protections for genetic information.