Seminar: Center for Biomedical Informatics
Faculty Candidate, Dr. Senthil Sundaram
Monday, November 10th, 12PM-1PM,
910 Madison, Room 502
Lunch will be served.
Topic: Translational Genomics of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
This presentation is organized around three neurodevelopmental disorders: Developmental disabilities, Tourette Syndrome and Infantile spasms. Neurodevelopmental disorders are complex disorders requiring the use of multimodal approaches for adequate characterization.
Recent advances in genomics (exome sequencing), bioinformatics and imaging have allowed us to study these disorders in a detailed manner. Leveraging these advances, we identified new genetic variants, pathway/gene network abnormalities and imaging findings in neurodevelopmental disorders. For example, in a study of developmental disabilities with poorly developed language pathway defined by diffusion tensor imaging, we identified new mutations in axon guidance genes using exome sequencing. New knowledge emerging from such studies will play a critical role in stratification, diagnosis and treatment of these patients. Future studies that improve upon these and other novel approaches may pave the way towards the long-cherished goal of personalized medicine.
Dr. Sundaram is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. Dr. Sundaram is funded by NIH to investigate developmentally delayed children using genomics and imaging techniques for the evaluation of language pathway (arcuate fasciculus). This work has resulted in numerous publications including the identification of mutations in axon guidance pathway using exome sequencing.Dr. Sundaram conducted the first genome-wide CNV analysis in Tourette Syndrome and published a key paper in the journal Neurology that received a dedicated editorial in the journal and has been identified as an article of outstanding interest in the field by several review articles. He is also funded by CURE epilepsy foundation to identify gene regulatory networks in infantile spasms. Dr. Sundaram has a strong publication record including articles in several high-impact journals such as Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Cerebral Cortex, Journal of Pediatrics, Journal of Nuclear Medicine etc.
Questions? Email the Center for Biomedical Informatics: bmi@uthsc.edu