Education

Genetics essentially impacts all facets of medicine, and the Division of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism proudly plays a major role in educating medical students and other trainees at all stages of scholarship.

Medical Students

First-Year Medical Students

First year medical school curriculum includes:

• Medical Biochemistry Course: protein and amino acid metabolism, hyperammonemia and urea cycle defects, defects in amino acid metabolism (PKU, MSUD, etc.), purine and pyrimidine metabolism, and treatment of inborn errors of metabolism
• Medical Genetics Course: population genetics, inborn errors of metabolism, assessing genetic risk/pedigree analysis, genetic screening, genetic counseling, and ethical issues in genetics

Third-Year Medical Students

Third-year medical students participate in pediatrics rotations involving:

• Case studies in clinical genetics
• Genetics clinic outpatient rotations
• Clinical genetics consultations

Fourth-Year Medical Students

We offer an elective in clinical genetics to fourth-year medical students involving outpatient genetics clinics and inpatient genetics consultations.

Medical Genetics Interest Group

We provide mentorship to UT Southwestern medical students considering a career in Medical Genetics. This highly successful interest group meets periodically to discuss new developments in clinical and research-based genetics. We seek to provide an environment to educate students about career opportunities in this exciting and rapidly expanding area of pediatrics.

Residents

We play a major role in the education of residents at UT Southwestern. Some of our activities include:

Medical Genetics Residency Program

The Department of Pediatrics, through the Division of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism, sponsors the clinical department for our ACGME certified training program in Medical Genetics. Medical Genetics stands alone as a specialty, rather than being a subspecialty of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, or Obstetrics/Gynecology. The training program encompasses many clinical departments including Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics/Gynecology (prenatal diagnosis), Neurology and Pathology (Clinical Molecular Genetics, Cytogenetics, and Biochemical Genetics), among others. The program is directed by Garrett Gotway, M.D., Ph.D., a board-certified pediatrician, and medical geneticist.

The residency is managed through the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, the Human Genetics Center of UT Southwestern.

• See an outline of the residency program.
• Get an application form online.

Pediatrics

The Division provides didactic teaching for the pediatric residents, including:

• Clinical dysmorphology
• Cause and evaluation of birth defects
• Common chromosome anomalies
• Newborn screening
• Acute metabolic disorders
• Genetic storage disorders

We directly teach residents in the regular departmental clinical conferences, as well as part of our inpatient consultation service.

Finally, the Division offers a Clinical Genetics elective to second- and third-year pediatric residents. The residents see outpatients in our clinics and inpatients for consultation services under the supervision of one of the members of the Division faculty. We encourage the residents to participate in clinical research projects if they are interested.

Other Specialties

Trainees in other departments also spend time in our clinics. Residents in Neurology, Pathology, and other specialties may receive some of their training through our Division.