WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS - Key Persons


Carla Sandler-Wilson

Current position: Neonatologist, Mednax Medical Group, Nashville, Tennessee

Carol Liu Shen

Current position: Pediatric Nephrology Fellow, Mount Sinai, New York, New York

Daniel Wegner

Job Titles:
  • Research Lab Manager
Daniel Wegner is involved in exome and genome sequencing analysis of babies with rare, extreme Mendelian phenotypes, both through the Washington University Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) Clinical Site, as well as other Washington University genetics efforts. He also manages the research and bioinformatics efforts of the UDN clinical site. He is also involved in studying a specific ABCA3 mutation, c.3863-98C>T, and testing strategies for pharmacologic correction of this mutation in cell culture models.

Emily Merfeld

Current position: Radiation Oncology Resident, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Jade Tam-Williams

Current position: Pediatric Pulmonologist, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri

Jennifer A. Wambach

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Newborn Medicine / Research Bio
  • Principal Investigators
Jennifer Wambach, MD is a clinically active neonatologist and has a longstanding interest in understanding the genetic causes of birth defects and extreme phenotypes in infants and children. Her research goals are (1) to use genomic sequencing technologies to identify the etiologies of birth defects and extreme phenotypes among infants and children and (2) to use functional studies to determine the disease mechanisms underlying these rare diseases. Specifically, this research laboratory focuses on the identification and functional characterization in cell-based systems for genetic disorders of surfactant metabolism which cause severe neonatal respiratory failure in term infants and childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD) in infants and children.

Jessica Shapiro

Job Titles:
  • Research Technician II
Jessica works as part of the Washington University Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) Clinical Site. She analyzes genomic and RNAseq data from patients and their families, assists with patient/family sample collection and processing, and performs functional studies of individual variants/genes identified in case analyses to solve these challenging cases.

June Hu

Current position: Neonatologist, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, Texas

Kathryn Xu

Current position: Pre-Medical Student, Washington University School of Medicine

Katie Shields

Current position: Genetic Counselor, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas

Kristen Rosano

Current position: Neonatal Perinatal Medicine Fellow, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio

Mallory Leff

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student
Mallory is studying a specific ABCA3 mutation, c.3863-98C>T, primarily seen in Colombia, South America, and is working to obtain an accurate population frequency of this mutation by genotyping bloodspots from a cohort of > 1000 infants from Medellin, Colombia.

Park J. White

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Pediatrics, Newborn Medicine / Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology

Ping Yang

Job Titles:
  • Research Specialist
Ping Yang is using a custom landing pad cell system to generate lung cell lines that stably express either wild type ABCA3 or individual ABCA3 mutations. She uses these cells for determining disease mechanism of ABCA3 mutations and screening of small molecules for pharmacologic correction of ABCA3 mutation-encoded disruption of lung function. Ping also assists with patient/family sample collection and storage for the UDN.

Sandra Leibel

Current position: Neonatologist, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California

Sophia Luna

Current position: Medical Student, Stanford Medical School

Stephanie Attarian

Current position: Neonatologist, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Monroe Carrell, Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee

Whitney Bour Eldridge

Current position: Neonatologist, Pediatrix Medical Group, Tampa, Florida

Yue Jiang

Current position: Physician Assistant, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas