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Held Joins WSLH as Laessig Memorial Newborn Screening Fellow
Dr. Patrice Held joins the WSLH as the inaugural Dr. Ronald H. Laessig Memorial Newborn Screening Fellow. Part of her focus during the two-year fellowship will be research on immunodeficiencies. While an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Held, a native of Chicago's southwest suburbs, went looking for a student research position that would incorporate her interest in lab-based research and genetics. She was successful, working in the Waisman Center laboratory of Drs. Cary Harding and Jon Wolff, then-director of the Waisman Center Biochemical Genetics Laboratory and a long-time Wisconsin newborn screening medical consultant and supporter. (NOTE: The Waisman Center Biochemical Genetics Laboratory moved to the WSLH in 2009 and is now under the direction of Dr. Greg Rice.) After graduating from UW, Held went west to Portland where she received her PhD in molecular and medical genetics from the Oregon Health Sciences University, and then east to Maryland where she served a two-year postdoctoral biochemical genetics fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. After NIH, Held went west again landing in Salt Lake City where for the past three years she has been the Assistant Medical Director for the Biochemical Genetics Laboratory at ARUP and an Assistant Professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She is board-certified in biochemical genetics by the American College of Medical Genetics. Held's interest in the Laessig newborn screening fellowship springs from what initially drew her to biochemical genetics - the ability to utilize early detection and treatment of diseases to prevent devastating outcomes for children. "With newborn screening, you can really see how early detection and treatment are essential for prevention of devastating outcomes" Held explains. "I've spent the past three years doing solely biochemical genetics at a clinical laboratory, where we performed testing for children whose disorders may or may not have been detected through newborn screening. The difference in the clinical outcome for children who were identified early by newborn screening was remarkable in comparison to children who were diagnosed later. I'm excited about this fellowship because it allows me to fully understand the newborn screening process, how it overlaps with the metabolic testing performed in the biochemical genetics laboratory, and how newborn screening operates as a public health entity. "Newborn screening disorders are so complex. My training and work in biochemical genetics will certainly help me, but there is still so much more to learn. I'm really looking forward to working with Mei (Baker, WSLH Newborn Screening Laboratory Science Director), Gary (Hoffman -WSLH Newborn Screening Laboratory Director), the newborn screening lab staff, and (WSLH Director) Dr. Brokopp," Held said. Held also said she is interested in learning how a state public health laboratory and newborn screening laboratory operate at multiple levels - from the lab bench to the bigger picture of funding and policymaking. The Dr. Ronald H. Laessig Memorial Newborn Screening Fellowship is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Association of Public Health Laboratories and the Jeffrey Modell Foundation. The two-year fellowship offers post-doctoral candidates an exciting opportunity to engage in primary newborn screening research, including a focus on immunodeficiencies such as SCID. The fellowship is named in honor of Ronald H. Laessig, Ph.D., who served as Director of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene from 1980 - 2006 and was a strong advocate for newborn screening. He passed away in 2009. As the State's public and environmental health laboratory and a part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene scientists and academic leaders provide analytical testing, consultation, research, and education in a variety of specialties, including infectious diseases, genetics, newborn screening, cytology, environmental sciences, occupational health and toxicology.
Written By: Jan Klawitter, WSLH Public Affairs Manager
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