LYSOSOMAL CENTER - Key Persons

Ana Farias

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Public Relations Specialist

Andrew Friedman

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Clinical Research Coordinator

Arooj Agha

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Clinical Research Coordinator

Dr. Ozlem Goker-Alpan - CMO, Founder, President

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CMO
Founder
President

Ozlem Goker-Alpan, MD, has over 20 years of experience in the rare diseases field. She is a world-renowned clinician and translational scientist in rare genetic and lysosomal storage disorders, training a new generation of physicians and advocacy patient groups. At LDRTC, Dr. Goker-Alpan oversees multiple scientific projects exploring immune pathways and lysosomal functions to develop new diagnostic and monitoring tools in LSDs and GBA-related Parkinsonism. Dr. Ozlem Goker-Alpan is the founder and president of LDRTC, a nonprofit organization that focuses on Lysosomal disorders and other rare diseases. Dr. Goker-Alpan founded LDRTC in 2013 with a vision that quality care to individuals with rare diseases is provided by offering clinical care, and translational research under one roof. Dr. Goker-Alpan received her medical degree in 1990 from Marmara University School of Medicine in Istanbul, Turkey with the highest honors as first in her class. She trained in Pediatrics and then served as a Pediatric Chief Resident at SUNY at Stony Brook, New York. She completed her first fellowship in Clinical and Biochemical Genetics at the National Institutes of Health, Greater Washington Medical Genetics Program in 1999, and worked as an adjunct scientist at the National Child Health Institute. Her second fellowship focused on Lysosomal disorders and Gaucher disease at the Clinical Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), NIH. She coordinated the NIH Gaucher Clinic at the Medical Genetics Branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). As an established clinician and translational scientist in rare genetic and lysosomal storage disorders, her pursuit is to provide individualized care and treatment for patients with LDs and rare diseases. Under her supervision, LDRTC has completed multiple scientific projects exploring immune pathways and lysosomal functions to develop new diagnostic and monitoring tools in LDs and GBA-related Parkinsonism. She serves on the scientific advisory boards of multiple pharmaceutical companies and patient advocacy organizations. Her continuing effort is to educate and train the new generation health care providers in Lysosomal disorders.