DNA Today: #279 Reflecting on 50 Years of the Greenwood Genetic Center

Introducing a special episode of DNA Today, the renowned podcast and radio show dedicated to exploring the latest developments in genetics.

Hosted by Kira Dineen, a certified genetic counselor, this episode commemorates a significant milestone: the 50^th anniversary of the Greenwood Genetic Center (GGC). Joined by Lori Bassett, MS, CGC, a board-certified genetic counselor and GGC’s director of communications since 2010, this conversation delves into the remarkable history and contributions of GGC to the genetics community. Tune in as Kira and Lori reflect on five decades of excellence and innovation at GGC.

TRANSCRIPT

Kira Dineen 01:38
Hi, you’re listening to DNA Today a multi-award-winning podcast and radio show where we discover new advances in the world of genetics from genetic technology. From CRISPR to rare diseases to new research for over a decade, DNA Today has brought you the voices of leaders and genetics in over 200 episodes. For the past three years. DNA Today has won the People’s Choice Best Science and Medicine Podcast Award. I’m Kira Dineen, a certified genetic counselor, and your host. Joining us now is Lori Bassett from the Greenwood Genetic Center. Lori is a board-certified genetic counselor like me, and since 2010 has served as the Greenwood Genetic Center’s director of communications so really a perfect person to have on this episode and I am, for those watching the video you see it, but for those not watching the video, I am wearing my Greenwood Diagnostic Labs t-shirt. Shout out to Caroline who gave it to me because we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Greenwood Genetic Center. So, for those that can’t do math fast enough, that was 1974! So happy birthday anniversary to Greenwood Lori, thank you so much for coming on to celebrate this really big milestone for GGC.

Lori Bassett  02:54
Thank you, Kira it really is very exciting here at GGC. This entire year is going to be full of celebrations of the 50th anniversary.

Kira Dineen 03:01
Yeah, it definitely is. I noticed right away that a new gold logo popped up for those of you listening to this podcast later, you probably see that above Lori’s head there. So that’s the new logo for the year and everything’s very exciting. But for those that maybe didn’t listen to our prior episode with Greenwood which was a couple of years ago now or maybe just aren’t familiar with the Greenwood Genetic Center, Lori can you fill them in a little bit on just like a background of Greenwood and kind of how you guys have contributed to our genetics community, and industry over the past 50 years? We’ll dive into a lot more detail, but kind of just you know for people that maybe haven’t heard of Greenwood before.

Lori Bassett  03:36
Yeah, absolutely. So, the Greenwood Genetic Center, or what you’re going to hear me call it is GGC throughout the rest of this discussion. We’re a nonprofit organization and we’re based in Greenwood, South Carolina, which is a small southern town – not your typical location for a genetics organization like this. We can talk a little bit more about that history and how we got here, but we’re a very patient-centric, patient-focused organization. We have four different divisions, so the primary area is clinical genetic services, taking care of patients. That is what drives everything that we do. We see patients across the state of South Carolina. We have a diagnostic laboratory that provides state-of-the-art genetic diagnostic testing. We have a research division that does both basic science work on rare diseases, as well as very patient-focused functional studies. And then we have wide-reaching educational initiatives as well.

Kira Dineen 04:29
Yeah, so there is a lot going in a lot of different divisions. I think we’ll kind of break a lot of those down and just see really what is available because people listening are going to be interested in the different areas, I think. But I would love to go back in time a little bit and talk about the motivation to start GGC I mean, why did it end up in Greenwood, South Carolina, because I’m kind of curious about that because as you said, it kind of at first seems like a random place in terms of where we hear of a lot of places based in you know, if they’re based in the U.S., they’re, you know, somewhere in California, Boston, New York. I mean, you know a lot of sites and taxes. So, this one seems a little out there. So why Greenwood, South Carolina, and I’m assuming that’s where the name came from?

Lori Bassett  05:17
Yeah, absolutely. So the challenge for your listeners is can you locate Greenwood on a map? I’m guessing most listeners could not. Hopefully you can find South Carolina, but…

Kira Dineen 05:24
I would hope that part I can because I’ve been there many times. Yeah, Myrtle Beach was definitely a place that I went to a lot growing up. Absolutely.

Lori Bassett 05:30
Absolutely. But that’s a question I get a lot when I’m talking about the Greenwood Genetic Center because folks in the genetics community have heard of us they know the good work that we’re doing, but have no idea how we got to be in Greenwood. So, the story is that our co-founders Dr. Roger Stevenson, who is a pediatrician and a clinical geneticist, and Dr. Hal Taylor, a lab geneticist, met when they were genetics fellows at Johns Hopkins back in the early 70s. They struck up a friendship and they dreamed of developing a genetics program that would be completely focused on compassionate patient care and using state-of-the-art technologies to do that. So, they didn’t really plan a location. At first they just knew that they wanted it to be in the south which is home for both of them. So, they reached out to a variety of hospitals and medical schools around the southeast without very much success, until Dr. Stevenson made a visit to a medical school friend who happened to be an orthopedic surgeon in Greenwood, South Carolina. So that connection led to more connections one with a local textile businessman named Jim Self and others with some folks at the state level at what was then the South Carolina Department of Mental Retardation, which is now Disabilities and Special Needs. For Mr. Self, he was always looking for ways to grow and support the Greenwood community. He thought this was a really innovative and interesting idea. So, he put up some of that starting funding to develop this center along with the state. Mr. Self’s one stipulation with that gift was if you’re going to use my money for this, you’re going to put it in my hometown. So, Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Taylor, their mentors told them “yeah, good luck with that,” you know, you’ll be calling us for a job within a year. You know, this can’t possibly succeed with a genetics organization in a little southern mill town. But that was 50 years ago, and we’re celebrating this huge milestone now and all the contributions that GGC has made to the field.

Kira Dineen 07:25
Yeah, wow. That’s quite a story. I definitely didn’t know the background. I was looking forward to learning more about it today. But that kind of big since it was really kind of a happenstance of like, who they were meeting and what those relationships ended up being and then it’s like, okay, ended up in Greenwood right? So, I think that’s really cool. And that you know, the name is a nod to that and then you know, obviously you guys are still there. But you know that origin story, I think, is always interesting, just to see how that happened. And, that was, you know, as you said, like early 70s. You guys were found in 1974. So it was the early days of genetics like that. That was very groundbreaking. Especially to not be somewhere like, you know, I think like why not Charleston? Why not Atlanta? There are other places where I think it would have been kind of made sense that they lived. And I think it’s something that’s very, very unique.

Lori Bassett 08:16
Well, I mentioned that we have satellite offices now that are spread across the state. So the home campus is at Greenwood. But our satellite offices do hit those larger population centers, like Greenville, Columbia, Charleston.

Kira Dineen 08:29
Ah, that makes sense. Yeah, definitely. And I hear Charleston is beautiful. I’ve not been there yet or just you need to make sure on my list. Yeah, definitely. Maybe next time visiting family you know, they live in the line of North Carolina and South Carolina. Absolutely. Beautiful city. Yeah. Yeah. And from my understanding, GGC is structured in a more unique way compared to other genetic organizations. I mean, on the show, we’ve done over 275 episodes over 11 years, like we’ve talked to a lot of people, right, so I’ve kind of learned a lot about just how companies are structured in the genetic space. I would love to learn more about the four collaborative divisions of that and kind of just you know what, what falls under each of those because as I said, I think when it comes to those, some people more maybe more interested in the clinic side or more the research side and probably depends on you know, where they’re coming from, and like how they may collaborate with Greenwood in the future.

Lori Bassett 09:21
Yeah, absolutely. So ever since we were founded, we’ve had these four separate divisions but one of the interesting and I think unique things about the Greenwood Genetic Center is the way all these divisions work so tightly together and collaborate. So, the first division is clinical genetic services. So, we serve patients across the lifespan across the entire state of South Carolina. Like I said, we have our home campus in Greenwood, but we don’t want patients in Charleston or on the coast to have to make that trip to Greenwood. So, we do have these other four satellite locations across the state. And if you look at the map of South Carolina and where we’re located, it’s very geographically spread out. And that’s by design so that patients have better access to those services. So, we see patients with genetic counseling services with clinical genetics evaluations. We’re involved in clinical trials in that clinical division, really pushing trying to get answers for our patients and trying to find ways to improve their quality of life. So, on the clinical side, the patients that we see are really what drives the organization to move forward.

Kira Dineen 10:25
So, within the clinic division, then is there a certain area that you’re focused on in terms of like I mean, there’s so much nowadays in terms of like, you know, there’s pediatric, cancer, prenatal are kind of the main areas in terms of like genetic counseling, and that’s the mind frame that I’m coming from. But also, there are more random areas like neuro and ophthalmology. Is there an area that’s more focused on in terms of I mean, at the main campus satellite offices?

Lori Bassett 10:52
Absolutely. So, we see patients for any of those indications or reasons. We have the capabilities to deal with those. But our niche, our area of expertise is really more in neurodevelopmental disorders. About 75% of our patients are pediatric so that is really kind of our area of main area of interest, but we are expanding and are seeing patients in our cancer clinics and seeing patients in adult clinics as well. But neurodevelopmental disabilities, birth defects, those are areas, where we have a lot more research experience and a lot more interest, and a lot of that comes out of that initial startup from the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs. Those were the populations that are served by that agency, individuals with intellectual disability with autism. And so that really sort of became our first area of interest in research and expertise and it just sort of grew from there.

Kira Dineen 11:43
Yeah, that is awesome. And just serving a population in this you know, physical area that without Greenwood, I kind of wonder who they would go to and just, you know, you’re in an area where, you know, say Greenwood had ended up in Atlanta or something, then you know, it’s a little bit different in terms of like, you’re serving a population that without Greenwood, I just, I worry, like, what would that look like for patients in that area?

Lori Bassett 12:07
We have nothing to back this up. But we always joke and say that there are more geneticists per capita in South Carolina than anywhere else because of the Greenwood Genetic Center. We have a relatively small population, but there are a lot of geneticists here.

Kira Dineen 12:21
That is so funny. Yeah, that’s really interesting. And then I know you guys also have like the diagnostic lab division is that kind of the second division?

Lori Bassett 12:30
That is the second division. So, we have a biochemical lab, a cytogenetics lab, and a molecular lab. We offer state-of-the-art testing for our own patient populations, the ones we see in our clinics, but also from referring providers from around the country and around the world sending samples to our laboratories. We process about 25,000 to 30,000 samples every year through our labs.

Kira Dineen 12:50
Wow, that’s a lot! One thing I think about back on Episode 145, I believe, let me check. Yes, so 145, we had colleagues of yours on software like EpiSign, so is that an example? That’s an epigenetic test that you guys are and have really improved over the years and changed and made a lot of updates.

Lori Bassett 13:14
Yeah, so we offer your standard biochemical, cyto, and molecular tests, we’re doing whole genome sequencing, but EpiSign is one that we’re really, really proud to be involved in. It’s one of these novel tests. It’s able to make these diagnoses when some of these other technologies come short.

Kira Dineen 13:29
Yeah, no, that’s really interesting, because there’s not a lot of other labs that are offering that at least the last time I checked, you seem like the only lab in the United States that is offering it right now.

Lori Bassett 13:35
So, we’re proud to be a partner with the London Health Science Center and developing that test and bringing it to the clinic.

Kira Dineen 14:16
That’s surprising but impressive that you guys are the only ones that offer that and then you have the research aspect, right? It’s like a whole other aspect.

Lori Bassett 14:24
So, in the research division, they use a variety of different research methodologies including model organisms. We have an aquaculture Zebrafish facility here. So, they do have basic research projects with an interest, particularly in lysosomal storage disorders and congenital disorders of glycosylation. Those are two big areas of interest for some of their basic studies, but a lot of what we do there, one thing we’re really proud of, is the functional work that we’re doing. So, we can take these VUSs, that we’re identifying on genomes and instead of just leaving it as a VUS, or having to reach out for collaborations from across the world, we have a laboratory here where, if it’s a gene that the zebrafish have, and we can make that functional study work, we can do those projects and get that resolution to that variant and the zebrafish also give us a way to interrogate various treatments and therapies for some of these conditions at that zebrafish level.

Kira Dineen 15:21
Yeah, yeah. It’s really interesting. I always love learning, like, what are the animal models that certain companies use and why you know, I think of the mouse model is probably the most standard right? But you know, as the professors are up there, you know, it’s certainly not the one that is the most common, right? I’m just curious, is there a reason why Greenwood chose zebrafish over other types of models like fruit flies? Those are kind of more standard in my mind, right?

Lori Bassett 15:47
So, we actually have a collaboration. We work closely with Clemson University, they have a research facility on our campus and they do the Drosophila work. So, we do work with projects with their center as well. We actually hired Dr. Rich Steet from the University of Georgia about five or six years ago now to head up our research division. And he was already a zebrafish geneticist we had worked with in the past – Athens and Greenwood are not terribly far apart. So, we’d collaborated with Rich in the past. And when he and his wife Heather came here, they brought their fish. They moved their fish laboratory here and it was the first model organism that we had here on our campus, and it’s proven to be very robust. You know, you can get those generation times turned around quickly, the zebrafish the embryos are transparent. So, you can visualize that development in real-time and they have really given us some answers for some patients that we may not otherwise have found otherwise. When we have guests that come visit and they hear that you know, people share 70% of our DNA with zebrafish. That’s a that’s a great conversation starter to get. To be able to explain how the Zebrafish work and how we can take the Zebrafish and actually get certain, not only answers but sometimes treatments for the patients that were taking care of.

Kira Dineen 17:15
Yeah, and I think along with that, the time of reproduction. Yeah. But that’s really helpful when it comes to looking at how that’s going to affect someone, so that that’s so interesting. And when it comes to the impact, like the reason we’re all in genetics, the reason that we all are active in this field and we’re contributing comes back to make people’s lives better, right? To educate people. Are there any, you know, stand out like success stories or something that have really hit home for you in terms of, wow, this is something that Greenwood had? This impact on a person’s life or group of patients or anything like that?

Lori Bassett 17:56
Yeah, we I mean, we love to share those kinds of stories. We have so many patients that have found those answers and found those treatments, and one that comes to mind is a young lady who was referred to us, named by the name of Chloe, she was referred to when she was 12. But she started having concerns and issues much, much younger, when she was first walking. She had issues with her balance. She was developing tremors in her eyes, tremors in her hands. She had learning delays and seizures, and she had bounced from specialist to specialist without an answer. Unfortunately, it took until she was 12 for someone to say hey, maybe you need to go see genetics. So, she did get referred to our office. At that time we were doing exomes so we did an exome on Chloe, and found one of those lovely variants of uncertain significance in a gene called NUS1, that really was suspicious but it just you know, wasn’t clear. So, we called up our research friends across the street and said, hey, do zebrafish have NUS1. Turns out they do. So, we introduced Chloe’s variant into a line of zebrafish and what we noticed with those fish is that their swimming patterns were very unusual. They would kind of stay around the edges of the of the tanks rather than sort of doing their random swimming. They swam faster than other fish. And so that told us we’ve got a movement disorder in these fish and when we look back at Chloe, with her seizures and tremors and balance issues, she had a movement disorder. So, it was enough for us to be able to classify that as pathogenic. And then we also studied those fish a little more closely and realized they were storing excess cholesterol in their lysosomes and once we gave them a drug to remove that excess cholesterol, we started to see their swimming behaviors normalize. So, we were able to use the fish to get an answer which was our first goal but we were also able to resolve the issues in the fish. So, we’re now working towards developing a way to be able to work with Chloe and work to resolve or at least improve some of those movement issues.

Kira Dineen 20:04
And the treatment that you guys used in the zebrafish that helped Chloe at the time, now you’re saying it’s pathogenic, which makes sense. Is that like a previously approved FDA drug for other purposes that you’re like, can we use it maybe for this indication?

Lori Bassett 20:20
Yeah. So, all of the drugs all the things that we’re using with the fish are small molecules or drugs that are already FDA-approved for other purposes. So, it’s something we’re not to the point of being able to transfer it directly to Chloe at this point. There are some other situations that we have to think about there, but it’s certainly giving us a path to move forward and it’s given her family and answer has given her family hope that we’re working very hard to get to treatment for her and now Chloe’s been doing very well. So, we’re happy to have been a small part of that.

Kira Dineen 20:54
It shows the power of being able to use animal models to say okay, we have this one person with this one variant that we’re not we need more information about how does this work? And introducing that into an animal model and saying, “okay, what symptoms do we see?” I mean, I think that shows kind of just that’s like personalized medicine at its finest, like, you’re really taking one person with one variant and seeing how that affects them. I mean, that’s just so powerful. And it’s really cool when we hear studies like this.

Lori Bassett 21:25
That’s one of the things that the Greenwood Genetic Center having these divisions that are so, so cohesive and so communicative with each other, we’re really able to get these projects run through and, make some progress, maybe a little faster than we would otherwise without that great collaboration.

Kira Dineen 21:44
It makes sense because a lot of the genetic testing companies are just genetic companies, I guess, I should say, are specializing in areas right I think a lot of them offer like sequencing and we’re kind of, you know, transitioning that over time where some tests are not being ordered as much because whole genome sequencing is taking over, right, but to have a company that has these four pillars of divisions, then you start having that interdisciplinary like collaboration, as you’re saying, like, if you see someone in the clinic, well, maybe or you’re ordering a test in your diagnostic lab and then alright, that comes back negative. Is there something we can do in the research division right now? So, it’s just such an interesting approach and just options with that. And as I’m saying that I realized we’ve talked about three and not four, so I have to imagine that’s education, because we have not talked about the famous visual aids that genetic counselors know of Greenwood, and they’re just familiar with it. That’s the famous flipbooks.

Lori Bassett 22:57
The first flipbook actually came out in 1984. We’ve got a copy in our library, it’s about this thick, just a handful of visual aids there. But for those who aren’t familiar with it, it’s a visual aid tool that’s used by counselors and clinicians around the world to help explain these complicated genetics concepts to patients, folks put them in presentations, but the main purpose is to use them in clinic with patients. 1984 was the first one and we were now I think, on our seventh edition of the book.

Kira Dineen 23:31
Yeah, I’ve certainly used it. GGC was very nice and sent me a copy of it. I have to say I had to find a very big binder for it. There are so many things in there. And just like the updates that you guys have made it’s really interesting. Like I, you know, remember flipping, I haven’t used it because it doesn’t make sense in prenatal necessarily, but like pharmacogenetics, and like that was like I think one of the newer ones I don’t know which edition that came out in but one of the newer ones and yeah, it’s just great because there’s so much and I think one aspect that I really like is that there’s just more diversity throughout to that, I think in the past, you know, I’m sure like the first edition and stuff just where we were, you know, in the field and in society, a lot of visual aids are, you know, based on people of European descent, and so I just love that the visual aid has changed a lot over time. And, you know, in general, you know, we’ve gotten better.

Lori Bassett 24:21
Yes, we made a very concerted effort to make sure that it was more inclusive for the populations that we’re serving.

Kira Dineen 24:26
Yeah, no, I think that’s huge. And you just have, I think, one of the ones that, at least in my prenatal world, the amnio and CVS visual aids like that’s the ones that I see people pull up the most in terms of, you know, their counseling, especially I think it’s great for students because, you know, sometimes as you get in your career, you may not use visual aids as much or you might start using them or you know, it kind of ebbs and flows like changes. Yeah, but I think students definitely use it the most I think, percentage-wise and everything. But yeah, there’s just a lot there.

And as we mentioned at the top of the episode, the reason that we’re kind of chatting about Greenwood today is because you guys are celebrating 50 years. So, we talked a lot about like the origin story and what you guys offer now, but I want to focus on the achievements and the contributions that GGC has made to any that come to mind. Like, you know, I know we kind of mentioned like the birth defects prevention program. Are there others that you’re thinking about in terms of like, you know, “I’m really proud we were able to do this and we continue to offer this?”

Lori Bassett 25:31
Well, one of the benefits of having one of these milestone anniversaries is you kind of get retrospective. And you look back on how far we’ve come. So yeah, the Birth Defects Prevention Program is a big one. It’s something that’s still going on. You know, back when folic acid was first identified as being the key to preventing neural tube defects. We were one of the very first states to provide that prevention education to healthcare providers and so it’s been very successful and it’s been hailed by the CDC as one of those programs to mimic by other states. I would say in the research area, one of the things we’re best known for is X-linked intellectual disability. That’s an area that Dr. Stevenson, our co-founder and our former Director of Research, Dr. Charles Schwartz, got very involved in and really, I think, are the gurus in the field of clinical genetics. Our labs identified about a third of the known XLID genes that exist including those that are responsible for alpha Thalassemia intellectual disability, for Renpenning syndrome, Snyder-Robinson, and FG syndrome. And then we were one of the first labs to provide molecular testing back when FMR one was identified for Fragile X and MeCP2 for Rett syndrome. Another condition that we are really well known for is Phelan McDermid syndrome which is on chromosome 22, our former lab director Katy Phelan actually identified the causative finding for Phelan-McDermid Syndrome and it’s named after her. Our array lab was instrumental in getting the very first FDA-cleared array CytoScan HD, so we were a part of that. I mentioned Rett syndrome before that’s been one of our favorite conditions, I think throughout the years. Our current director, Dr. Steve Skinner is one of the world’s leading experts on Rett syndrome. So, we’re a Rett Syndrome Center of Excellence and were a clinical site for DayBue, which just last year was the very first FDA-approved drug for Rett syndrome. So, we’re excited to see that transition from identifying the genes to testing to now being able to have a therapy available. And then we already mentioned EpiSign, which is something we’re super proud to be involved in. The genomic methylation signatures for our recent version came out with over 90 different conditions now that we can test for through EpiSign so that’s continuing to grow and be a way that we can get answers for those that are still looking.

Kira Dineen 27:57
Wow, so many landmarks in genetics in general, have come from Greenwood. I mean, as I’m sitting here learning of all this, I’m like we have to do an episode on X-linked intellectual disability genes, and all that. Like that is totally an episode and we’ve got the folks who could talk about that. I’m like right here are the world experts. I mean, that is that is just impressive. And I want to pull out what you said, like identifying about a third of known X-linked genes related to intellectual disability. I mean, that’s a huge chunk. Yeah. It makes sense with your history of doing the testing for genes related to Fragile X syndrome because like that’s an X-linked, you know, related intellectual disability disorder. So yeah, it’ll kind of make sense of when you have this history, you’re able to have that information in that foundation to be able to bring even more intelligence than like, you know, just the state of the art with research, which is impressive, because you guys do so much that it’s not like you’re just resource. Yeah, no, that’s, that’s very cool. Well, I mean, a lot of this is ongoing, but is there anything you haven’t mentioned that Greenwood is working on now or things to look forward to? I don’t know how much I’m able to tease out of you in terms of the future.

Lori Bassett 29:15
I mean looking back, this anniversary has been really fulfilling and rewarding, but the biggest thing we want to do now is look ahead what’s going to come in the next 50 years in genetics and at GGC. Specifically, we have a formal agreement with the Medical University of South Carolina. We talked about Charleston earlier. So, we have very close partners there in Charleston that we’re working on improving genetic services for patients and families in our state. The big strategic plan now here at GGC is a Precision Medicine Initiative, that combines our culture of compassionate patient care with making sure we have these innovative technologies available. So we have this project we’re calling the four A’s. There’s access, analysis, answers and action. So access is how do we make the services more accessible and remove the barriers that are keeping patients from getting to genetics clinic you know, if you have the greatest technologies and tests and therapies but can’t patients get into your door – it’s not worth much. The second, analysis, evaluates novel technologies like RNA and long-read sequencing, and optical genome mapping to see which of those technologies are most useful, and for which cohorts of patients. The third is answers. So that is our genomic discovery program, which is using these technologies, the ones we already have and these novel ones, to get to those answers to make the diagnoses that had been eluding us to clarify these variants that we’re finding. And then the last is action. It’s the goal of all of this, to go beyond the diagnosis to improve the quality of life for these patients and their families to deliver these novel therapies, and identify new treatment targets. So that’s really where we’re putting all of our forces and resources, behind these four A’s. Again, all for the good of our patients. And then one other initiative that’s really kind of new to us, is what we talked about earlier, about how we were kind of into the pediatric area and looking at developmental conditions. But we started a new initiative called the Carroll Campbell Alzheimer’s initiative. Carroll Campbell was a former governor of South Carolina who passed away after battling Alzheimer’s, but this is a collaboration between GGC, the Veterans Administration, and a biotechnology company called MitoSense to investigate the use of mitochondrial organelle transplantation to help repair or replace defective mitochondria that might be in the cells that are causing some of the features of Alzheimer’s disease. So, this is a brand new initiative that we’re really excited about that is getting off the ground. And again, looking towards that action point. Is this something that could be a potential therapy, not just for Alzheimer’s, but for other patients who have disorders of mitochondrial dysfunction. So yeah, lots of lots of exciting stuff going on – just a couple of things that are on our list.

Kira Dineen 32:07
Yeah, that is that is so exciting. And I didn’t even think when we were talking about personalized medicine, precision medicine, earlier that you had this whole initiative. So, Wow. Yeah, we kind of showed a good example of how that can work earlier in the episode. There’s just been a lot of advancements, I think, in the last couple of years with Alzheimer’s. So that makes sense. So, kind of joining that space and, and seeing what can happen there. And I mean, mitochondria are just so interesting. We’ve done a couple of episodes, I’ll put them in the show notes for people about mitochondrial disorders, including an episode with a genetic counselor that also has a mitochondrial disorder. So that’s very interesting. But for those that want to learn more about Greenwood Genetic Center, especially epigenetic testing, I recommend I mentioned it earlier in the episode, but to go back to Episode 145, because we definitely dive deep into EpiSign.

I want to mention, I sadly will not make it to ACMG this year, I know it’s in Toronto, and I was really looking forward to it, but it’s not going to happen. But you guys are going to be there. So, like everybody listening, if you’re listening to this like right when it comes out. ACMD is in just a couple of weeks, so go say hi, learn more at their booth. That’s booth 1201. So, look for the gold logo. Yeah, look for the gold logo. And I’m sure a lot of green because that’s kind of you know, your main color. So yeah, you guys had a really good booth at NSDC at the last one a few months ago, so I’m assuming it’s going to be just as fun this year. Oh, absolutely. And I’m assuming Caroline won’t be there. But yeah, thank you so much, Lori, I really appreciate it. It’s just so interesting to look at how much Greenwood has had an impact in genetics and just all of these different divisions, as we’ve talked about, are really just continuing to have an impact and just growing in the genetics field. So, it was fun to nerd out with you for a while and just learn about kind of the history.

Lori Bassett 34:20
Yeah,  I appreciate you having me here!