Human Genetics Team

Leadership

Overseeing the Human Genetics team in the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) are Timothy M. Olson, M.D., and Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Olson is a pediatric cardiologist and molecular geneticist whose research focuses on discovering the genetic underpinnings of cardiovascular disease. His experimental strategies include genetic linkage analysis to map the genomic location of novel disease genes in familial cases, hypothesis-based mutational analysis of candidate genes and next-generation sequencing.

Dedicated staff and collaborators

Jeanne L. Theis, Ph.D., a research fellow, has expertise in cardiovascular genetics and genomics. Xing Li, Ph.D., who has expertise in using gene networks to uncover the mechanics of disease, is the team's bioinformatician.

Collaborating with the Human Genetics team are Eric D. Wieben, Ph.D., director of the Advanced Genomics Technology Center (AGTC) at Mayo Clinic, and Myra J. Wick, M.D., Ph.D., an obstetrician and gynecologist whose research focuses on human genetics and prenatal diagnosis, and medical co-editor of the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy.

Infrastructure utilized

The Program for HLHS leverages the AGTC, which brings together seven genomics-oriented shared resources to facilitate genomics research at Mayo Clinic. Specializing in high-density microarray and real-time PCR-based analyses, the AGTC provides instrumentation and technical expertise to perform genomic studies on a wide variety of sample types.