richard a. lewis, MD MS

professor

Dr. Lewis, an ophthalmologist at the Cullen Eye Institute and the Alkek Eye Center, is a consultant in genetic eye disorders and ocular manifestations of systemic hereditary disorders for Texas Children’s Hospital and the adult genetics services at the Baylor-affiliated hospitals. His clinical practice includes genetic eye disease and their constitutional associations. With numerous members of the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, he and his colleagues pioneered the mapping of many X-linked ocular disorders, including X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa, Choroideremia, the Oculo-Cerebro-Renal Syndrome of Lowe, Blue Cone Monochromacy, X-linked Nettleship-Falls Ocular Albinism, and the Nance-Horan X-linked Cataract-Dental Syndrome.

ivan k. chinn, md

assistant professor

Dr. Ivan Chinn attained bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and the University of Texas at Austin, respectively.  He then received his medical degree from the UT-Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.  He fulfilled residency training in pediatrics at Tulane University and completed fellowship training in allergy & immunology at Duke University. Dr. Chinn remained as a junior faculty member at Duke University for several years before he was recruited by Dr. Jordan Orange to join the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital.  Dr. Chinn joined Dr. Lupski’s laboratory and the Center for Mendelian Genomics project shortly after his arrival at Baylor College of Medicine in 2014 as part of a collaborative effort between Drs. Orange and Lupski to focus upon discovery of novel genetic causes of inheritable immune-mediated diseases.

davut pehlivan, MD

Instructor

Dr. Pehlivan is an instructor in the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Child Neurology, at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his medical school and genetics residency training at University of Istanbul. After completing genetic residency training, he joined Lupski lab as a postdoctoral fellow. After almost 5 years of research in Lupski lab, he pursued second residency in child neurology. He re-joined Lupski lab after completing his clinical training. He is working to become an independent physician scientist in the field of neurogenetic disorders. His research focus is to elucidate genetic etiologies of various neurogenetic conditions including neuromuscular disorders, epilepsy-DD/ID-brain malformation using advent molecular techniques such as ES and array-CGH.

Jennifer E. Posey, md, phd

assistant professor

jennifer.posey@bcm.edu

Dr. Posey is a physician scientist and clinical geneticist with an interest in adult-onset genetic disease. In the Lupski laboratory, she studies the molecular genetic characteristics and clinical phenotypes observed in individuals with more than one molecular diagnosis revealed by WES. She is also studying the genetic etiology of familial orthostatic intolerance with a focus on individuals and families who have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

Claudia Carvalho, phd

assistant professor

cfonseca@bcm.edu

Dr. Carvalho completed her PhD in Brazil at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. She has been studying the underlying formation mechanism for structural variants throughout her career. Her main research interest concerns understanding the mutational spectrum of human diseases, how those mutations originate in the genome, and how they can contribute to an individual clinical phenotype.

Visit Carvalho Lab Website

dana marafi, md, MSC

Assistant Professor

Dana.Marafi@bcm.edu

Dana.Marafie@Ku.edu.kw

Dr. Dana Marafi is a former postdoctoral fellow of Professor James Lupski and is now a vital collaborator. She is currently an assistant professor at Kuwait University. She is a child neurologist who subspecializes in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy. Dr. Marafi’s work with the Lupski lab is focused on investigating the genetic basis of Mendelian epilepsies and neurodevelopmental disorders in mostly consanguineous families from the Middle East.