The Munroe-Meyer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center is considered by some a Mecca for genetic research.
Fittingly, several top geneticists made a pilgrimage of sorts to the institute yesterday as part of a regional conference hosted by MMI staff.
The tour of the institute was part of the three-day “Heartland Regional Genetics and Newborn Screening Collaborative Annual Conference,” which started Wednesday at the Hilton in downtown Omaha.
“Some of the best geneticists in the world are found right here,” said Brad Schaefer, M.D., MMI associate director. “This is a chance to showcase it.”
The conference has brought together hundreds of geneticists and researchers from an eight-state region that includes Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
With a staff considerably larger than many other genetic institutes in the region, MMI is home to leading-edge work and research in genetic medicine, Dr. Schaefer said.
This staff includes five clinical geneticists, including Dr. Schaefer.
Considering there are no clinical geneticists in the state of Kansas and several other states have just a handful scattered throughout their borders, having five in one building is almost unprecedented, Dr. Schaefer said.
Aside from Wednesday’s tour of Munroe-Meyer, the second annual conference also will feature national speakers as well as seminars by MMI geneticists.
Presenters from UNMC include Dr. Schaefer; Warren Sanger, Ph.D., director of MMI’s Human Genetics Laboratory; Shelley Smith, Ph.D., MMI’s director of Human Molecular Genetics and Richard Lutz, M.D., a UNMC genetics, endocrinology and metabolism expert.
Dr. Sanger spoke this morning about comparative genomic hybridization.
On Friday afternoon, Dr. Smith will speak about genetic causes of learning disorders while Dr. Lutz will speak about autism genetics research.
One important topic the conference will focus on is improving and standardizing care for patients with genetic diseases as well as increasing accessibility to such care, Dr. Schaefer said.
Dr. Schaefer also will speak this morning about helping young people with genetic diseases get the help they need to live with their conditions.
In some places, patients with genetic diseases and their families struggle mightily to find the care they need, he said. A goal of the conference is to craft ways to alleviate such problems.
“It’s traumatic enough to have a child with a birth defect,” Dr. Schaefer said. “People shouldn’t have to struggle to find quality care.”
UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through its commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics, biomedical technology, ophthalmology and arthritis. UNMC’s research funding from external sources is now nearly $80 million annually and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,600 highly skilled jobs in the state. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes more than 460 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties. They practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC’s teaching hospital. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.