The ACMG Foundation presents Takeda/ACMG Foundation Next Generation fellowship awards

BETHESDA, MD – March 18, 2020

| Aixa M. Gonzalez Garcia, MD, FAAP and Chen-Han Wilfred Wu, MD, PhD are the recipients of the 2020

Takeda/ACMG Foundation Next Generation Fellowship Awards

. These awards are the fourth set of awards given after Shire–now part of Takeda–made a $1.8 million commitment in 2017 to support the training of future medical geneticists.

Bruce R. Korf, MD, PhD, FACMG, president of the ACMG Foundation said, “We are grateful to Takeda for their ongoing commitment to training of clinical and laboratory geneticists. The explosion of genetics and genomics applications in medicine make the need for such training greater than it has ever been.”

The Takeda/ACMG Foundation awards will provide funding for two different specialties in 2020: one Medical Biochemical Genetics Subspecialty Fellowship Award (1 year); and one Clinical Laboratory Biochemical Genetics Training Award (2 years).

Medical Biochemical Genetics Subspecialty Fellowship Award:

Aixa M. Gonzalez Garcia, MD, FAAP, Emory University School of Medicine

Dr. Gonzalez Garcia is a second year clinical genetics resident at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, where she enjoys caring for children and adults with a variety of genetic conditions and inborn errors of metabolism. She obtained her medical degree from Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas, after which she practiced rural medicine for one year with a special focus on underserved pediatric populations. She completed her pediatric residency training at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida in 2018, where she received the award for excellence in pediatric critical care. Dr. Gonzalez Garcia has been board certified in pediatrics since 2018. Upon completion of her clinical genetics training at Emory University in the summer of 2020, she will continue on to her medical biochemical genetics subspecialty fellowship.

Upon receiving the award, Dr. Gonzalez Garcia said, “I feel extremely humbled and excited to be a recipient of the Takeda/ACMG Foundation Next Generation Medical Biochemical
Subspecialty Award. I look forward to starting my career in this field with the guidance and mentorship of our outstanding faculty members at Emory University and joining with pride the biochemical genetics community in serving our patients with rare disorders.”

Clinical Laboratory Biochemical Genetics Training Award:

Chen-Han Wilfred Wu, MD, PhD, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Dr. Wu attended medical school at National Taiwan University and completed his urology residency at National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei. He moved to the United States for a fellowship at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he became interested in genetics. He earned his PhD in human genetics from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Currently, Dr. Wu is a clinical fellow in genetics and genomics at Harvard Medical School with Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. He also serves as an associate editor for the journal

GENE

.

In addition to clinical papers, Dr. Wu has published in the field of genetics and genomics on disease gene mapping, quantitative and population genetics and statistical genetics. He is the principal investigator for the project “A Next-Generation Biochemical Genetics Approach to Urinary Stone Diseases,” which aims to employ metabolomics profiling and exome sequencing to study patients with stone disease. The project also aims to identify biomarkers and explore the treatment options of genetic therapy and metabolic reprogramming.

Upon receiving the award, Dr. Wu said, “I am honored to be awarded the Takeda/ACMG Foundation Next Generation medical genetics award. I am thankful to ACMG Foundation and our industry partners for providing the award. I hope my work will help push the boundaries of biochemical genetics forward and benefit our patients.”

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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, contact ACMG Senior Director of Public Relations Kathy Moran, MBA at

[email protected]

.