The Developmental Genetics Training Program at Tufts New England Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine provides physicians and pre-doctoral students with strong training in developmental genetics and the genetics of inherited diseases that can impact fetal, neonatal, and maternal health

Our faculty of 25 is drawn from T-NEMC and TUSM and includes basic and translational researchers who hold M.D., Ph.D., and M.D./Ph.D. degrees. Three postdoctoral trainees are recruited from the ACGME-accredited fellowship programs in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, and Medical Genetics based at T-NEMC and three predoctoral trainees are recruited from the Ph.D. programs in Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at TUSM each year.

Trainees share a common training experience with rigorous exposure to bench and translational research. Our program will promote interaction between pediatricians, medical geneticists, and obstetricians who treat patients and basic scientists who work on genetic mechanisms of disease, thereby helping each group understand the impact of the other's work. Research training is complemented by common courses of fundamentals of genetics, developmental genetics, ethics, and a course in pathoboiology of genetic and developmental diseases that is co-taught by basic scientists and physicians. Seminars, presentation workshops, hospital-based genetics rounds and career counseling round out the program.

By integrating our basic and clinical faculty, our trainees will acquire a deeper and richer knowledge of basic genetic mechanisms and contemporary clinical problems. Our goal is to produce basic sicence faculty who can be productive in mutlidisciplinary, translational environments and clinician scientists who will become independent, funded investigators addressing problems relevant to the health of mothers and children at risk for developmental disability or inherited disorders.

The training grant provides a novel opportunity to get exposure to translational ideas. Each year three graduate students in either Physiology or Genetics and three physicians who are training in Newborn Medicine, Maternal-Fetal Medicine, or Medical Genetics receive support and form a core group that participates in joint activities such as Genetics Rounds at Tufts-New England Medical Center and a special journal club.

Predoctoral Applicants –
Students who choose to perform their thesis research in a Developmental Genetics program-affiliated laboratory and propose a thesis project relevant to developmental genetics are eligible for training grant support. Applicants should submit a 1-page description of their proposed thesis project and a current Sackler transcript to Phil Hinds by August 1 of Years 1 or 2.

Postdoctoral Applicants –
Must be M.D.s who are receiving clinical training in Medical genetics, newborn Medicine, or Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Fellows who apply to do their research work in the laboratory of a Developmental Genetics program affiliated lab, and who are accepted into that lab, may then apply to the Developmental Genetics program.
Applicants should submit to Diana Bianchi a curriculum vita, transcripts, letters of reference, a supporting letter from the postdoctoral mentor, and a 1-page description of the proposed project. Postdoctoral applications are accepted throughout the year. Fellows accepted into the program typically make a minimum of a 2-year research commitment.

All applicants must meet NIH appointment criteria to be considered by training grant support.

Developmental Genetics Training Faculty and Primary Graduate Program Affiliation

Diana Bianchi, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatrics
Alain Charest, Ph.D., Neurosurgery
Brent Cochran, Ph.D., Physiology
John Coffin, Ph.D., Molecular Biology and Microbiology
Catherine Freudenreich, Ph.D., Biology
Grace Gill, Ph. D., Anatomy & Cell Biology
Akiko Hata Ph.D., Biochemistry
Victor Hatini, Ph.D., Anatomy
Ira Herman, Ph.D., Physiology
Philip Hinds, Ph.D., Medicine
Brigitte Huber, Ph.D., Pathology
Gordon Huggins, M.D., Medicine
F. Rob Jackson, Ph.D., Neuroscience
Peter Juo, Ph.D., Physiology
Rajendra Kumar-Singh, Ph.D., Ophthalmology
Janis Lem, Ph.D., Medicine
Laura Liscum, Ph.D., Physiology
Heber Nielsen, M.D., Pediatrics
Jose Ordovas, Ph.D., HNRC
Alexander Poltorak, Ph.D., Pathology
Maribel Rios, Ph.D., Neuroscience
Naomi Rosenberg, Ph.D., Pathology
Ananda Roy, Ph.D., Pathology
Erik Selsing, Ph.D., Pathology
Amy R. Simon, M.D., Medicine
Donna Slonim, Ph.D., Computer Science
Philip Tsichlis, M.D., Medicine
Henry Wortis, M.D. , Pathology
Pam Yelick, Ph.D., Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery