The Master of Genetic Counseling (MGC) degree program at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) will hold its first Genetic Counseling Research Symposium April 5 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in room 202, Light Hall.
The symposium, sponsored by VUSM and Vanderbilt University Medical Center will feature talks by:
- Robin Hayeems, PhD, associate professor at the University of Toronto and scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, who studies the delivery, evaluation and governance of genomic screening and diagnostic tools in the prenatal, newborn, and early childhood periods, and
- Jehannine Austin, PhD, MSc, Canada Research Chair in Translational Psychiatric Genomics at the University of British Columbia, who uses a clinical genetics perspective to inform development of novel interventions that can improve outcomes for individuals with psychiatric disorders and support their families.
To register for the symposium, go to http://vu.edu/geneticcounselingsymposium. The registration deadline is March 22.
Genetic counselors are master’s-degree level professionals who have specialized training in medical genetics. Licensed in 33 states, they educate patients, families and health care providers about the risks and implications of inheriting genetic disorders.
Martha Dudek, MS CGC, assistant professor and director of Obstetrical Genetic Counseling in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at VUMC, led the effort to license genetic counselors in Tennessee. She was the first clinical genetic counselor licensed by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners in 2008.
Active in medical genetics education and mentoring, Dudek also is founding director of the state’s first Master of Genetic Counseling program, which opened at Vanderbilt in 2019. Several of the program’s 19 graduates have presented their research at national and international meetings and published their work in professional journals.
Dudek and Nancy Cox, PhD, who directs the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and the Division of Genetic Medicine, are co-principal investigators of a five-year, $1.3 million federal grant to establish a research fellowship for genetic counselors that will prepare them to contribute more fully to the advancement of personalized medicine.
The symposium is included in the grant (1R25HG012915), which was awarded in 2023 by the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
Research presentations will be delivered by members of the MGC Class of 2024, by Lucas Richter, MM, MGC, CGC and Toni Lewis, MS, the first fellows in Genomics Outcomes Research supported by the R25 grant, and by Jill Slamon, MAT, MS, CGC, assistant professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Slamon, assistant MGC program director, is participating in the new Advanced Research Training for Genetic Counselors (ART-GC) Certificate Program.