Workshop on molecular methods for genetic diagnosis. Final technical report

The Sarah Lawrence College Human Genetics Program received Department of Energy funding to offer a continuing medical education workshop for genetic counselors in the New York metropolitan area. According to statistics from the National Society of Genetic Counselors, there are approximately 160 genetic counselors working in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut), and many of them had been working in the field for more than 10 years. Thus, there was a real need to offer these counselors an in-depth opportunity to learn the specifics of the major advances in molecular genetics, and, in particular, the new approaches to diagnostic testing for genetic disease. As a result of the DOE Award DE-FG02-95ER62048 ($20,583), in July 1995 we offered the {open_quotes}Workshop on Molecular Methods for Genetic Diagnosis{close_quotes} for 24 genetic counselors in the New York metropolitan area. The workshop included an initial review session on the basics of molecular biology, lectures and discussions on past and current topics in molecular genetics and diagnostic procedures, and, importantly, daily laboratory exercises. Each counselor gained not only background, but also firsthand experience, in the major techniques of biochemical and molecular methods for diagnosing genetic diseases as well as in mathematical and computational techniques involved in human genetics analyses. Our goal in offering this workshop was not to make genetic counselors experts in these laboratory diagnostic techniques, but to acquaint them, by hands-on experience, about some of the techniques currently in use. We also wanted to provide them a technical foundation upon which they can understand and appreciate new technical developments arising in the near future