Course Directors
Bruce R. Korf, MD, PhD, FACMG
Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Endowed Chair in Medical Genetics
Chief Genomics Officer, UAB Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham
1720 2nd Ave. S., Kaul 230
Birmingham, AL 35294
Tel: (205) 934‐9411
E‐mail: bkorf@uab.edu
Dr. Korf is the Associate Dean for Genomic Medicine, School of Medicine; Chief Genomics Officer, UAB Medicine; Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Endowed Chair in Medical Genetics, Professor of Genetics, Co-Director of the UAB-HudsonAlpha Center for Genomic Medicine, Associate Director for Rare Diseases, Hugh Kaul Personalized Medicine Institute and editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Human Genetics. Dr. Korf is past president of the Association of Professors of Human and Medical Genetics, past president of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, and current president of the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine. He has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH. His major research interests are genomic medicine and the natural history, genetics, and treatment of neurofibromatosis. He serves as principal investigator of the Department of Defense funded Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Consortium, and co-PI of the Alabama Genomic Health Initiative and the All of Us Southern Network. He is co-author of Human Genetics and Genomics (medical student textbook, now in fourth edition), and Emery and Rimoin’s Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics.
Dr. Korf received his bachelors and medical degrees from Cornell University. He completed his PhD in Genetics and Cell Biology at Rockefeller University. He completed residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, neurology in the Harvard-Longwood Neurology Training Program, and genetics in the Harvard Medical School Genetics Training Program. He is certified by the American Board of Genetics and Genomics in clinical genetics, clinical cytogenetics, and clinical molecular genetics; the American Board of Pediatrics in pediatrics; the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in neurology (child neurology).
John A. Phillips, III, MD, FACMG
David T. Karzon Professor of Pediatrics
Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and Professor of Medicine
Director, Division of Medical Genetics & Genomic Medicine
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
DD‐2205 Medical Center North
Nashville, TN 37232‐2578
Tel: (615) 322‐7602
E‐mail: john.a.phillips@vumc.org
My current research interests are molecular investigations of the pathogenesis of Mendelian disorders. These include specific studies of the following: 1) genetic defects in the growth hormone (GH) synthetic pathway and regulation of alternative splicing of GH1 transcripts, 2) genetic basis of familial primary pulmonary hypertension (FPPH), 3) genetic basis of familial dyslexia, 4) genetic basis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and 5) determining the molecular basis of VLCAD, LCHAD and other selected disorders of fatty acid oxidation and genes that metabolize medications using a new patented method (GVS) to screen for human genome variation.
Faculty

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Ali S. Al-Beshri, MD, FACMG
Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics
Heersink School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham
1720 2nd Ave S., VH1L108B
Birmingham, AL, 35294-0019
Phone: (205) 934-9528
Fax: (205) 975-6389
Email: asabeshri@uabmc.edu
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Ali Al-Beshri is an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed his medical degree at the Dammam University in Saudi Arabia. He completed a combined internal medicine and medical genetics residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a medical biochemical genetics fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Clinical Genetics and Genomics, and Medical Biochemical Genetics. His clinical interests are adult genetics, mitochondrial disease, and inborn errors of metabolism.

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Pinar Bayrak-Toydemir, MD, PhD, FACMG
University of Utah School of Medicine
Professor, Clinical Pathology
Medical Genetics and Genomics Department
30 N 1900 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84132
Tel: (801) 581-7498
Email: pinar.bayrak@aruplab.com
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Dr. Bayrak-Toydemir is a medical director of the Molecular Genetics and Genomics Department at ARUP and a professor (tenure) of clinical pathology at the University of Utah’s School of Medicine. Dr. Bayrak-Toydemir received her MD at the Ankara University School of Medicine, and PhD in human genetics at the Ankara University School of Medicine. She completed a fellowship in clinical molecular genetics at the University of Utah, School of Medicine. She is certified with the American Board of Medical Genetics Medical Genetics and Genomics in Laboratory Genetics and Genomics, and a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia Foundation International, Inc., and the Turkish Society of Medical Genetics.
She served in the Academic Senate (2017-2019). She is a member of the School of Medicine Faculty Appointment, Review, & Advancement Committee. She is also member of the School of Medicine College Council.
Dr. Bayrak-Toydemir has focused her research efforts on understanding the molecular genetic characteristics of inherited vascular diseases. She primarily studies Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) disease. In addition to HHT, her research aims to identify genes that cause various inherited vascular malformations, including capillary malformation-arteriovenous malformation syndrome.
Dr. Bayrak-Toydemir is also interested in application of next generation sequencing to molecular diagnostics and involved developing many practice guidelines. Specifically, she has focused on undiagnosed diseases using exome and genome sequencing and deep sequencing of vascular tissues to identify somatic alterations. She is part of the NIH-undiagnosed disease network.

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John A. Bernat, MD, PhD, FACMG
Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Medical Genetics and Genomics
University of Iowa
200 Hawkins Dr, W125 GH
Iowa City, IA 52242
Tel: (319) 356-2675
E-mail: john-bernat@uiowa.edu
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John Bernat, MD, PhD, is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Medical Genetics and Genomics, Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, at the University of Iowa. He is board-certified in clinical genetics and genomics and clinical molecular genetics and genomics. His clinical interests include lysosomal disorders, skeletal dysplasias, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. He currently serves as a site principal investigator for eleven active clinical trials involving lysosomal disorders and related metabolic disorders, including two gene therapy trials. He also serves as Past-Chair for ACMG's Education and CME committee.

Gerard Berry, MD, FACMG
Harvey Levy Chair in Metabolism Director,
Metabolism Program Division of Genetics and Genomics Boston Children’s Hospital
Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School,
Center for Life Science Building,
3 Blackfan Circle, Suite 14070
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: (617) 355‐4316
E‐mail: Gerard.Berry@childrens.harvard.edu
Gerard T. Berry, MD a biochemical geneticist and pediatric endocrinologist, is the Harvey Levy Chair in Metabolism and Director of the Metabolism Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Harvard Medical School Biochemical Genetics Training Program. He is the President of the Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders (SIMD). He is a Communicating Editor for the Journal of Inherited Metabolic Diseases and on the Editorial Board for the Journal, Metabolism. He is the Co-Editor for the Journal, Molecular Genetics and Metabolism-Reports. He is the co-chair for the Metabolomics Working Group of the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN). His review panel and other NIH service work included serving as a Member of Gene Therapy and Inborn Errors (GTIE) Special Emphasis Panel, a Member of the Therapeutic Advances for Genetic Diseases (TAG) study section and the Chairman of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network Data and Safety Monitoring Board 2. Dr. Berry has been the recipient of both NIH and non-federal grant awards. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and over 45 book chapters. He was the recipient of the 2004 Emmanuel Shapiro SIMD Award. Dr. Berry’s primary clinical and basic science research efforts are focused on Galactosemia and, secondarily, on myo-inositol metabolism in the brain particularly during fetal development.
Pamela L. Flodman, MSc, MS, LCGC
Adjunct Professor, Pediatrics
School of Medicine
Director, Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling
Department of Pediatrics
University of California, Irvine
101 The City Drive
Orange, CA 92868
Tel: (714) 456‐5789
E‐mail: pflodman@uci.edu
Pamela Flodman, MSc, MS, LCGC is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, where she serves as the program director for the Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling and as the Interim Chief of the Division of Genetic and Genomic Medicine. Ms. Flodman received her MSc in applied statistics at the University of Oxford and her MS in genetic counseling at UC Irvine. In her professional role as a board-certified, licensed genetic counselor, she works with individuals and families to assist them in understanding and adapting to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic variation for their health. Her research focus is in genetic risk calculation and in the application of quantitative analysis to genetic data, to enable accurate communication of risk to patients and their families, and counseling strategies to promote informed decision making.

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Angela Grochowsky, MD, FACMG, FAAP, FACP
Associate Professor
Vanderbilt University Genetics
3319 Acklen Avenue
Nashville, TN 37212
Tel: 256-566-4849
Email: angela.grochowsky@vumc.org
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Dr. Angela Grochowsky is from a small town in Alabama near Huntsville. She pursued her undergraduate degree at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Dr. Grochowsky obtained her medical degree from The University of Alabama School of Medicine in 2013. She then completed her combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at Indiana University. She went on to do her Medical Genetics fellowship at The National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins consortium. In addition, she went on to complete an additional fellowship in Medical Biochemical Genetics at The National Institutes of Health. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Medical Genetics, and Biochemical Genetics. Dr. Grochowsky is passionate about caring for patients with genetic and biochemical disorders ranging from newborn to the end of life. She is highly interested in transitional care for patients with complex medical needs and has started a new Adult Down syndrome clinic at Vanderbilt over the past couple of years. She also loves teaching and helping healthcare professionals learn, understand, and appreciate the significance of genetics in patient care. She is the new Program Director for the Genetics Residency program at Vanderbilt and thoroughly enjoys spending time with residents and trainees. When Dr. Grochowsky is not seeing patients or teaching she enjoys spending time with her 3 year old daughter, 1 year old son, french bulldog and husband. She is living out her dream job and truly loving being a Medical Geneticist.
Robert Hufnagel, MD, PhD, FACMG
Chief, Medical Genetics and Ophthalmic Genomics Unit
Chief, Ophthalmic Genomics Laboratory
NIH: National Eye Institute
10 Center Drive
Building 10, Room 10N109
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Tel: (301) 503-1305
E-mail: robert.hufnagel@nih.gov
Dr. Robert Hufnagel is a clinician-scientist in the Ophthalmic Genetics and Visual Function Branch of the National Eye Institute. This branch of the National Institutes of Health plans and conducts clinical and laboratory research of gene expression, molecular genetics, cell biology, and molecular interactions important to the eye, and applies clinically relevant research findings to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases affecting the eye and the visual system.
The goal of Dr. Hufnagel’s cutting edge research program applies the scientific approaches of developmental biology and molecular genetics to hereditary ophthalmic diseases to improve diagnosis and ultimately vision for these patients. Dr. Hufnagel has developed a translational research program using genomic sequencing to identify disease etiologies to discover novel disease genes and molecular targets for therapeutic trials.
His medical and research training has centered around clinical genetics, next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics, genome editing, induced pluripotent stem cells, and animal models including mouse, zebrafish, and lizard.
Dr. Hufnagel received his Ph.D. in neuroscience and his M.D. from The University of Cincinnati. He has published numerous publications and received many accolades for his work including the Director’s Award from the National Eye Institute.
Fady M. Mikhail, MD, PhD, FACMG
Co‐Director, Cytogenetics Laboratory
Professor, Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham
720 20th Street South, Kaul Genetics Building,
Room #314A
Birmingham, AL 35294
Tel: (205) 934 9588
E‐mail: fmikhail@uab.edu
Dr. Mikhail graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria, Egypt in 1990. He completed his Clinical Pathology residency at the Department of Clinical Pathology in the same University. He received an Egyptian government scholarship to conduct this PhD thesis research work in the United States where he worked as a visiting scholar in the Pathology Department, School of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL. He earned his PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria, Egypt in 2003. Dr. Mikhail did his Clinical Cytogenetics fellowship at the Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL, and was certified by the ABMGG in 2007. He joined the faculty in the Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL as an Assistant Professor in 2006. He was promoted to an Associate Professor in 2012 and to a full Professor in 2017. Dr. Mikhail served on the ACMG Laboratory Quality Assurance (Lab QA) Committee from 2011 to 2021 and served as the chair of this committee from 2019 to 2021. His research interests include identification of novel constitutional genomic disorders caused by microdeletions and microduplications using chromosomal microarray (CMA) technologies with special interest in neurodevelopmental disorders, and characterization of the clinical phenotype, molecular breakpoints, mechanism of rearrangement, as well as the functional categorization of the involved genes. Dr. Mikhail’s research interests also include identification of novel cytogenetic rearrangements in patients with various hematologic malignancies that might have a causal role in the oncogenic process using molecular cytogenetic techniques, and identification of the underlying genes.

Sharon E. Plon, MD, PhD, FACMG
Professor, Pediatrics/Hematology‐Oncology
Professor, Molecular and Human Genetics
Human Genome Sequencing Center
Director, Medical Scientist Training Program
Department of Pediatrics
Baylor College of Medicine
1102 Bates Street
Houston, TX 77030
E‐mail: splon@bcm.edu
Dr. Sharon Plon is a board-certified medical geneticist and a longstanding cancer genetics researcher including leading to the discovery of new cancer susceptibility genes and the implementation of genomic testing in medicine. Dr. Plon holds the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center Professorship at Baylor College of Medicine in the Departments of Pediatrics/Hematology-Oncology, Molecular and Human Genetics and Human Genome Sequencing Center. Drs. Plon and D. William Parsons were principal investigators of the NHGRI/NCI-funded BASIC3 clinical trial on the incorporation of exome sequencing into the care of newly diagnosed childhood cancer patients and this study is now being expanded into diverse patient populations across Texas (KidsCanSeq trial). Since 2013, Dr. Plon has served as one of the Principal Investigators of the Clinical Genome (ClinGen) Resource and chairs the ClinGen hereditary cancer effort. She currently co-chairs the germline reporting effort of the national NCI/COG Pediatric MATCH Precision Oncology trial. Dr. Plon is also working closely with Dr. Philip Lupo on a population-based study to understand the association between birth defects and cancer risk in children. Dr. Plon recently finished terms on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics and the NIH Human Genome Research Advisory Council.
Heidi Rehm, PhD, FACMG
Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Chief Genomics Officer, Department of Medicine, MGH
Professor of Pathology, MGH, BWH and Harvard Medical School
Medical Director, Broad Institute Clinical Research Sequencing Platform
Center for Genomic Medicine
Simches Research Building, MGH
185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114
Tel: 617-643-3217 (MGH M/W)
Email: hrehm@mgh.harvard.edu
Heidi Rehm is the Chief Genomics Officer in the Department of Medicine and at the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital working to integrate genomics into medical practice. She is a board-certified laboratory geneticist, Medical Director of the Broad Institute Clinical Research Sequencing Platform and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, working to guide genomic testing for clinical and clinical research use. She is a principal investigator of ClinGen, providing free and publicly accessible resources to support the interpretation of genes and variants. Rehm also co-leads the Broad Center for Mendelian Genomics focused on discovering novel rare disease genes and co-leads the Matchmaker Exchange to also aid in gene discovery. She is a strong advocate and pioneer of open science and data sharing, working to extend these approaches through her role as vice chair of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health. Rehm is also a principal investigator of the Broad-LMM-Color All of Us Genome Center supporting the sequencing and return of results to a cohort of one million individuals in the US and co-leading gnomAD, the Genome Aggregation Database.
Dr. Rehm received her bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She completed her PhD in Genetics at Harvard University studying the genetic and pathological basis of Norrie Disease, a deaf-blindness syndrome, and served as a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, expanding her studies into the genetic basis of hearing loss. She also completed a fellowship in Clinical Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School followed by board certification by the ABMGG.
Louise E. Wilkins‐Haug, MD, PhD, FACMG
Division Director, Maternal Fetal Medicine and Reproductive Genetics
Brigham & Women's Hospital
Professor, Obstetrics/Gynecology
Harvard Medical School
75 Francis Street
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: (617) 732‐4208
Fax: (617) 264‐6310
E‐mail: lwilkinshaug@partners.org
Dr. Wilkins-Haug is board certified in both maternal-fetal medicine and clinical genetics with a focus on the integration of genetics into obstetric care and the investigation of prenatal exposures and birth defects. She received her PhD in genetics from the Medical College of Virginia, her medical degree from Stanford and completed her training in obstetrics and gynecology training at the University of Colorado and her Maternal Fetal Medicine fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard, Boston Massachusetts. She remained at BWH where she is a professor in the Dept of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is director for the combined Maternal-Fetal/ Genetics Fellowship and the Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship and the Division Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Reproductive Genetics. As director for the Center for Fetal Medicine she oversees the provision of genetic counseling, perinatal consultation, fetal treatment and diagnostic testing.
Anthony Wynshaw‐Boris, MD, PhD, FACMG
James H. Jewell Professor of Genetics
Chair, Department of Genetics and Genome
Sciences
Case Western Reserve University, School of
Medicine
University Hospitals Case Medical Center
One 10900 Euclid Avenue, BRB731
Cleveland, OH 44106‐4955
Tel: (216) 368‐0581
E‐mail: ajw168@case.edu
Tony Wynshaw-Boris received his MD, PhD degrees from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. His PhD was under the direction of Richard Hanson, PhD, where he elucidated the sequences within the PEPCK promoter required for activation by cAMP and glucocorticoids.
He did his residency at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, in Pediatrics followed by a medical genetics fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital. While in Boston, he did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School under the direction of Philip Leder, MD, where he studied mouse models of developmental disorders.
In 1994, Dr. Wynshaw-Boris set up an independent laboratory at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the NIH, where he initiated a program using mouse models to study human genetic diseases, with a focus on neurogenetic diseases. In 1999, he moved to UCSD School of Medicine, where he became Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, as well as Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics.
In 2007, he moved to UCSF School of Medicine, where he was the Charles J. Epstein Professor of Human Genetics and Pediatrics, and the Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics. At UCSF, in addition to mouse models, his laboratory began to use patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models to study human disease. In June 2013, he returned to Cleveland to become the Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences. His laboratory continues to use mouse and iPSC models to shed light on mechanisms of neurogenetic diseases with the ultimate goal of providing novel therapies.
Dr. Wynshaw-Boris was President of the American Society for Human Genetics for 2020, and is now Past President in 2021. He was appointed to the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institutes of Health, in 2019. He has also been elected to membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Pediatric Society, and he was elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.