Christina Tise, MD, PhD, of Stanford University, and Daniel Pomerantz, MD, of Children's Hospital of Michigan and Wayne State University, have been selected as recipients of the 2021 Pfizer/ACMG Foundation Next Generation Fellowship Awards. These awards will support Drs. Tise and Pomerantz for one year of postgraduate training in clinical laboratory biochemical genetics and medical biochemical genetics, respectively.
"We greatly appreciate Pfizer's support of this Next Generation Fellowship Award. Training up-and-coming leaders in medical biochemical genetics is a critical investment in the future of our field that will benefit patients with complex biochemical disorders for years to come," said Bruce R. Korf, MD, PhD, FACMG, president of the ACMG Foundation.
Clinical Laboratory Biochemical Genetics Training Award:
Christina Tise, MD, PhD, Stanford University
Dr. Christina (Christy) Tise is originally from Wilmington, Delaware. She attended Virginia Tech as an undergraduate where she studied biochemistry and plant genetics. In 2010, she entered medical school at the University of Maryland with the desire to pursue medical genetics as a clinical specialty. As an MD/PhD student, she earned her PhD in 2016 in human genetics and genomic medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Alan Shuldiner. Dr. Tise's dissertation research focused on utilizing a "genotype to phenotype" approach to glean insights into human biology by systematically filtering for nonsense single nucleotide variants that are rare in the general population, but enriched in the Old Order Amish due to founder effect. Now in her second year of medical genetics residency at Stanford University, Dr. Tise will continue her training at Stanford for an additional year as a clinical laboratory biochemical genetics fellow. Her academic interests include the genetics of recurrent pregnancy loss, carrier and newborn screening (specifically the overlap between metabolic and molecular analysis), metabolomics, sulfate biology, and efficacy of various therapeutics for patients.
Dr. Tise was thrilled to learn she had received the Pfizer/ACMG Foundation Next Generation Award and was even more excited to share the news with her mentors. "I am beyond fortunate in having amazing mentors who have cultivated my love for genetics and have provided me incredible support and encouragement at each step of my academic journey thus far. The field of genetics has grown immensely in the past century due to the hard work and dedication of so many amazing geneticists, clinicians, and researchers, but there is still so much to discover! I cannot thank Pfizer and the ACMGF enough for supporting this endeavor and providing me the honor and opportunity to contribute to the field."
Medical Biochemical Genetics Subspecialty Fellowship Award:
Daniel J. Pomerantz, MD, Children's Hospital of Michigan/Wayne State University
Dr. Daniel Pomerantz completed his undergraduate studies in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Norman J. Haughey investigating the role of sphingolipid metabolism and lipidomics in HIV dementia, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He completed medical school at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where he extended his medical studies through the Vanderbilt Medical Scholars Program, working in the laboratory of Dr. Kevin C. Ess using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to explore his independent thesis on noncanonical mechanisms of mitochondrial dysfunction in tuberous sclerosis. Dr. Pomerantz also worked under the mentorship of Dr. John A. Phillips III and the Undiagnosed Disease Network to elucidate the biochemical and genetic mechanisms of clinical heterogeneity in mitochondrial nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) kinase deficiency. He is currently completing residency training through the Combined Pediatrics-Medical Genetics Residency Program at the Children's Hospital of Michigan/Wayne State University, under the leadership of former ACMG president Dr. Gerald L. Feldman, where he has explored his clinical interests of mTORopathies, mitochondrial disorders and organic acidurias, working extensively with the Michigan State Newborn Screening Referral Center. With the support of the Pfizer/ACMG Foundation Next Generation Medical Biochemical Genetics Subspecialty Fellowship Award, Dr. Pomerantz will pursue his medical biochemical genetics subspecialty training through the Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical Genetics Training Program, under the leadership of Dr. Gerard T. Berry, where he will collaborate with Drs. Charles Venditti and Oleg Shchelochkov at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore the role of gut microbial dysbiosis on acute metabolic crisis in disorders of propionate and cobalamin processing.
Over the past ten years, Dr. Pomerantz has published multiple academic clinical and basic science papers relating to the fields of medical genetics and metabolism. He has also presented his work at multiple conferences, including the ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting. Dr. Pomerantz is committed to a career as a physician-scientist, with specific interest in gut microbiome and metabolic regulation in inborn errors of metabolism and mitochondrial disorders. After completion of his medical biochemical genetics fellowship, Dr. Pomerantz expects to pursue additional postdoctoral training in metabolomics, microbiomics and genomics, to explore the causal mechanisms of gut microbiome and human mitochondrial crosstalk in order to learn more about disease pathophysiology and potentially identify novel therapeutic targets or biomarkers of disease. He looks forward to using his experience in each area to enhance the clinical care of his patients with biochemical genetic disorders and inspire his research.
Upon receiving the award, Dr. Pomerantz said, "I am ecstatic and deeply humbled to be a recipient of the Pfizer/ACMG Foundation Next Generation Medical Biochemical Subspecialty Award. I am also deeply grateful for the exceptional support by my mentor at Harvard, Dr. Gerry Berry, as well as our esteemed collaborators at the NIH, Dr. Charles Venditti and Dr. Oleg Shchelochkov. With the guidance and mentorship of the outstanding clinical and research faculty members within the Harvard Medical Genetics Training Program, as well as our collaborators at the NIH, I enthusiastically look forward to joining the biochemical genetics community to serve, care and advocate for our patients and their families."
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About the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine
The ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is a community of supporters and contributors who understand the importance of medical genetics and genomics in healthcare. Established in 1992, the ACMG Foundation supports the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) mission to "translate genes into health." Through its work, the ACMG Foundation fosters charitable giving, promotes training opportunities to attract future medical geneticists and genetic counselors to the field, shares information about medical genetics and genomics, and sponsors important research. To learn more and support the ACMG Foundation mission to create "Better Health through Genetics" visit http://www.acmgfoundation.org.
Note to editors: To arrange interviews with experts in medical genetics and genomics, contact ACMG Senior Director of Public Relations Kathy Moran, MBA at kmoran@acmg.net