image: The ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine is a community of supporters and contributors who understand the importance of medical genetics in healthcare. The ACMG Foundation raises funds to attract the next generation of medical geneticists and genetic counselors, sponsors important research and promotes accurate information about medical genetics. www.acmgfoundation.org view more
Credit: ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine
Amanda Freed, MD of University of Washington Medical Center and Seattle's Children's Hospital University of Washington School of Medicine and Kim Ng, MD of Duke University are the recipients of the Pfizer/ACMG Foundation Next Generation Clinical Genetics and Genomics Residency Fellowship Award, announced at the 2018 ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The objective of this fellowship is to provide an in-depth clinical research training experience at a premier medical center with expertise and significant clinical volume in the area of biochemical genetics, including lysosomal storage diseases, as well as in therapeutics and clinical trials involving patients with these and other metabolic diseases and, thereby, to increase the number of medical geneticists with interest, knowledge, and expertise in this area.
This Award grants $75,000 per year to the recipients, via their respective institutions, selected by the ACMG Foundation through a competitive process and will provide a two-year sponsorship for the trainee's clinical genetics subspecialty in translational genomics following residency.
Dr. Freed is a Medical Genetics and Genomics resident at the University of Washington. She received her bachelor's degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology at University of Michigan before receiving her M.D. from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. While at UCLA, she did research in the genetics of hyperlipidemia and was active in the Medical Genetics Student Interest Group. She then completed a Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency at Yale New Haven Hospital. There, she developed an interested in transitional care for young adults with genetic disorders. She is also interested in teaching and mentoring undergraduate and medical students.
Upon receiving the award, Dr. Freed said, "I am so grateful for this trainee award which will allow me to continue my residency training at University of Washington. Clinical genetics is so meaningful because I am able to take care of patients at every age and stage of life and often the entire family as well."
Dr. Ng Kim was born and raised in Singapore and attended the Duke University-National University of Singapore Medical School. She came to North Carolina in 2017 to pursue a Medical Genetics Residency at Duke University. It is her dream to be able to treat patients with rare diseases, and hopes that one day, she is able to take her passion from the bedside to the scientific bench and find a treatment for some of these disorders.
"I am extremely honored and grateful to receive the two-year Pfizer Clinical Genetics and Genomics Residency Fellowship Award. With this support, I will be able to pursue genetics training under the dedicated and brilliant mentors here at Duke, and aim to provide the best care for our patients. I hope that this training will provide me a solid foundation for which I can base my career as a physician-scientist on, and continually contribute to the rapidly expanding world of genetics and genomics," said Dr. Ng when she received the award.
"We are delighted to be able to partner with Pfizer in awarding the Pfizer/ACMG Foundation Clinical Genetics Combined Residency for Translational Genomic Scholars. There are unprecedented opportunities to translate advances in genetics and genomics to clinical practice, and training geneticists in this area will be critical to bringing new approaches and discoveries to the clinic as quickly as possible," said Bruce R. Korf, MD, PhD, FACMG, President of the ACMG Foundation.
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The ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine (ACMGF) is a community of supporters and contributors who understand the importance of medical genetics and genomics in healthcare. A non-profit organization established in 1992, the Foundation supports the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) mission to "translate genes into health;" to foster charitable giving, promote training opportunities to attract future medical geneticist and genetic counselors, to share information about medical genetics, to sponsor important research and much more.
To learn more and support the ACMGF mission to create "Better Health through Genetics," please contact Nicole O. Bell, ACMG Foundation Manager at nbell@acmg.net or by phone at 301-718-9604 or visit acmgfoundation.org.