MDNews - Cleveland-Akron-Canton

Dr. Wang, whose 15 years of research up to that point in time had been docu- mented in more than 30 national and international peer-reviewed journal articles. "But my interest was always in the translational side of medicine and how we could apply what we were learning to human beings." As fate would have it, towards the end of his residency Dr. Wang happened to see a recruitment ad for DDC Clinic in a pediatric journal. DDC was search- ing for a medical director to build a center of excellence for patient care and research for Amish children with rare genetic disorders. "I actually had to look up 'Amish' in my Chinese-English dictionary to find out what it was," says Dr. Wang. "The families suffering with some of these conditions often know more about them than the medical community. The potential research opportunity and the challenge of rare diseases really intrigued me." Today, 12 years later, Dr. Wang has developed expertise in more than 70 rare genetic disorders, some of which were never before described in the lit- erature. Three have been identified and named by him and his DDC colleagues: GM3 synthase deficiency, an extremely rare neurological disorder which affects brain development; TMCO1 defect syndrome, which affects cell growth a nd ca ncer t reat ment; a nd SA MS Association, which increases the risk of aneurysms and early-onset stroke. These findings have been published in several professional journals including Science, Nature Genetics and PNAS. Currently, Dr. Wang has 68 pub- lished studies to his credit. He has a lso re ceive d m a ny n at ion a l a nd international awards, including the prestigious Community Health Care Crystal Award from Johnson & Johnson, a Special Achievement Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Excellence Award in Science and Community Service. His paradigm- changing work has also been featured on national public radio and TV and in leading newspapers from coast to coast, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and more. DDC Clinic and Molecular Diagnostics Lab — a Dream Come True The idea for DDC originated with an Amish family whose four children all suffered from the same devastat- ing genetic disorder. Unable to find answers at major medical centers, they teamed up with four other families to take action – for their children and for future generations of children. "DDC Clinic was a dream for everyone there for almost three years," Dr. Wang explains. "(When I joined in 2002) it became my dream, too." Before DDC Clinic constructed clini- cal space, Dr. Wang provided care via house calls – more than 400 in his first year alone. In 2003, with the help of community support and matching grant funds from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Clinic was able to convert a 1,200-square-foot ranch home into a medical facility. Six years later, when the Clinic out- grew this space, a brand new 10,000 squ a re fo ot G old L EED cer t i f ie d building was constructed – not only for patient care, education and research, but also for an expanded molecular diagnostics laboratory. Baozhong Xin, PhD, was recruited to build the lab and advance research at DDC. Later, he was also charged with obtaining the CLIA-certification required by Medicaid, BCMH and other health insurance providers to offer services to physicians outside the Clinic's walls. A post-doctoral fellow in the Cancer Biology and Cancer Genetics Program at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Xin received his medical degree at Beijing Medical University and his PhD in Molecular Biolog y from the University of Hong Kong. W hile at Case, he collaborated with Dr. Wang on research projects. When asked to join the DDC team in 2005, he welcomed the opportunity. In the past nine years, DDC's CLIA-certified Molecular Diagnostics Lab has developed more than 50 assays for rare genetic diseases, some of which are offered nowhere else in the world. PHOTO © JOE SMITHBERGER, SMITHBERGER PHOTOGRAPHY, NORTH CANTON 2 0 1 4 N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R ■ M D N E W S . CO M ■ MD NEWS Cleveland/Akron/Canton | 7

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