News

The Neel Genetic Counseling Fellowship is intended to support the development of genetic counseling clinical research scholars. Each fall, one genetic counseling student is awarded this fellowship based on the quality of his/her research proposal. This year, Emily Higuchi is the recipient. Her research project is entitled Attitudes Towards Disability in a World of Advancing Prenatal Testing. The results will inform efforts to assess how the availability of noninvasive prenatal diagnosis may affect the public’s perceptions of those with disabilities, especially children with Down syndrome.

Our research program is driven by the interests of the individual student and takes advantage of the wide variety of genetics initiatives on the University of Michigan campus and within the state of Michigan. The goals of the research project are to improve critical thinking skills, provide firsthand experience of the research process, and contribute knowledge to the field of genetic counseling. This year's projects included:

Wolverine Health Explorers (WHE) is a week long summer camp for high school students interested in gaining exposure to a wide variety of health professions while also deepening their understanding of their own personal interests, values and skills. This summer the Genetic Counseling Program was a partner in this engaging program. Visiting students had the opportunity to participate in hands-on genetics activities, interact with UM faculty and staff, research scientists, and graduate students.

We are proud to celebrate the accomplishments of alumna Anne Madeo. Anne spent the last eight years working at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) in Bethesda, MD and just recently accepted a new position as the Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins University/National Human Genome Research Institute (JHU/NHGRI) Genetic Counseling Training Program.