UDP Telebriefing Spokespeople
Undiagnosed Diseases Program Telebriefing, Feb. 1, 2011
Larry J. Thompson, M.S., M.F.A., is chief of the Communications and Public Liaison Branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His team manages media relations and creates a wide range of communications products, including websites, multimedia presentations and scientific videos. Prior to joining NHGRI, he co-founded the Washington Post's Health section and the Science and Medicine section of the San Jose Mercury News. He holds an M.S. in molecular biology from Lehigh University and an M.F.A. in film and electronic media from American University.
William A. Gahl, M.D., Ph.D., is the NHGRI clinical director, senior investigator of the NHGRI's Medical Genetics Branch and director of the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program. Dr. Gahl studies rare inborn errors of metabolism through the observation and treatment of patients in the clinic and through biochemical, molecular biological and cell biological investigations in the laboratory. His group focuses on a number of disorders, including cystinosis, Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome, alkaptonuria and sialic acid diseases. He received an M.D. and a Ph.D. in oncology from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. For more on Dr. Gahl's research, please visit
www.genome.gov/Staff/Gahl.
Manfred Boehm, M.D., is an investigator in the Center for Molecular Medicine at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Dr. Boehm's primary research interests are in vascular biology and the genetics of vascular remodeling in human diseases. His group has developed animal models and patient-specific disease models to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of vascular remodeling in rare or unknown inherited and acquired vascular diseases. His team revealed new signaling pathways that are pivotal for balanced vascular wound repair; described a new concept of cellular contributions during vascular remodeling; and identified a new inherited vascular disease that causes arterial calcifications in adults. Dr. Boehm received his medical degree from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. For more on Dr. Boehm's research, please visit
Dr. Manfred Boehm [nhlbi.nih.gov].
Cynthia St. Hilaire, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at NHLBI. She received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Boston University School of Medicine and a B.S. in molecular genetics from the University of Vermont. She has trained in the Department of Genetics at Children's Hospital Boston and at NIH's National Cancer Institute as recipient of the Sallie Rosen Kaplan Fellowship for Women Scientists in Cancer Research.
