Clips
1. Concerns Rise Over Potential End of Public Health Genomics in US
GenomeWeb, April 21, 2025
In the Trump Administration's efforts to reduce the federal workforce, a small program at the CDC, working to integrate genomics into state and local healthcare programs, was eliminated. By weaving in this group's ties to the Human Genome Project and longstanding debates about whether the principles of public health are incongruent with genomic medicine, I explore the outsized impact this little-known program had on the adoption of genetic testing for cancer and heart disease, on newborn screening, and on our understanding of infectious diseases. I question how the public health might be impacted now that this group is gone and if there's room for a project like this among the healthcare priorities of the new administration. The story showcases my knowledge of the genomic medicine space and my ability to write stories that resonate with a broader audience.
2. Mass General Brigham Becomes Latest US Health System to Adopt Pretreatment DPYD Testing, GenomeWeb, Jan. 16, 2025
Kerin Milesky's husband, Larry Milesky, died horrifically from a chemotherapy overdose in May 2023. By the time he and his doctors at Mass General Hospital found out he had a genetic abnormality that put him at risk for fatal toxicities, it was too late. Kerin Milesky pushed Mass General Brigham to test patients for this deficiency before giving them chemotherapy and avoid future fatalities, and succeeded, putting Mass General Brigham on a short but growing list of US health systems performing this genetic testing. I worked on this story for several months, but the story changed overnight with MGB's decision to routinely offer this testing. I was able to publish a scoop the next morning.
3. Genetic Counselors Question Profession's Future Amid Ongoing Reimbursement Challenges, GenomeWeb, Aug. 8, 2024
Genetic counselors have been fighting for greater recognition of the value they provide in personalizing patient care for well over a decade. But their services continue to be poorly reimbursed. In this article, I investigated how the continued lack of reimbursement for genetic counseling services is impacting the profession's ability to grow and become part of the medical establishment.
4. Cancer Centers Nudge Oncologists Toward DPYD Testing as PGx Supporters Push For Guidelines Change, Precision Medicine Online, Aug. 18, 2022
Individuals with rare variations in a gene called DPYD are at risk of serious adverse events if they're prescribed a popular type of chemotherapy. Families who have seen their loved ones suffer and die from these horrific reactions say it looks like the chemotherapy is burning them from the inside out. Some cancer centers are implementing programs to try to avoid these rare but devastating adverse events by testing patients for DPYD variants before they're prescribed these chemotherapies, but many leading cancer centers, oncologists, and guidelines bodies have not adopted this testing. I was the first reporter to dig into why not and cover this controversy in depth.
5. Myriad Genetics to Submit Hereditary Cancer Risk Variants to ClinVar in 2023, GenomeWeb, Nov. 1, 2022
Myriad Genetics is infamous, derided, and even boycotted in certain circles in the genetic testing community for using its patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to establish a testing monopoly and refusing to share data even after the Supreme Court deemed naturally occurring genes patent ineligible in 2013. Nearly a decade after the court's decision, in a much more crowded and competitive hereditary cancer testing market and undergoing a strategic shake-up, Myriad changed its stance on sharing data. To report on this piece, I drew on my years-long experience covering Myriad Genetics' business and the gene patenting lawsuit from federal district court to the Supreme Court, and interviewed sources I'd cultivated along the way. I was the first to report on this change at the company, which surprised many in the genetic testing field.
6. Coronavirus Testing Delays Yield New Oversight Bill, Shine Light on LDT Regulation Debate, 360Dx, March 16, 2020
At a time when public health and lab industry experts were blaming the FDA for over-regulating labs and hampering early efforts to track how the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread throughout communities, legislators introduced a bill that would place the agency at the helm of an entirely new oversight framework for diagnostics. This article explores the debate, which is still raging today, as to whether FDA can and should regulate lab tests. The debate had particular significance during the global coronavirus pandemic, when the agencies regulatory systems were already under strain. The article is an example of my deep knowledge of diagnostics regulation.
7. Quest Diagnostics Win in Wrongful Death Case Reveals Ongoing Challenges for Variant Classification, GenomeWeb, Nov. 12, 2020
I was the first journalist to write about this lawsuit, which I followed and covered for four years. The case struck a nerve with the genetic testing community by raising questions about what the standard of care is and ought to be for determining the clinical significance of genetic variants and communicating that information to doctors and patients. At a time of rapid growth in the genetic testing industry, while standards of care are still evolving, the potential impact of this case on the field has been analyzed and debated in academic journals, at industry meetings, and within classrooms. This article, which has been cited numerous times, showcases my legal coverage.
8. FDA Stepping Up Actions Against PGx Testing, Forcing Some Labs to Stop Reporting Drug Information, 360Dx, Aug. 16, 2019
I broke this story about the FDA's efforts to quietly shut down pharmacogenetic tests that it hadn't approved -- a move that many in the lab industry say the agency lacks the statutory authority for.
9. Reluctance to Learn Genetic Risk for Cancer Grows With Affordable Care Act Repeal Fears, GenomeWeb, Sept. 25, 2017
People's fears about losing healthcare coverage back in 2017 made some reluctant to get medically recommended genetic testing that could inform their risk for cancer and the care they receive. My deep connections within the genetic counseling community allowed me to report this story.
10. Invitae Failure to Detect Rare Mutation Indicative of Intense Lab Pressures in Competitive Market, GenomeWeb, Aug. 25, 2017
Invitae, a genetic testing lab that had hoped to make genetic testing more accessible and affordable to patients, identified a quality control issue in 2017 that caused several patients to receive results indicating they didn't have a cancer risk mutation when then did. Genetic testing can be a cut-throat industry, with labs often working under cost and resource constraints and vying to capture small markets. I was tipped off to this quality control issue by Invitae's competitors at a time of intense competition in cancer genetics, but I was able to convince the company to speak to me in detail about what had gone wrong and that they'd have to retest 50,000 patients to identify everyone who got a false-negative result -- information that was not reported elsewhere.
GenomeWeb, April 21, 2025
In the Trump Administration's efforts to reduce the federal workforce, a small program at the CDC, working to integrate genomics into state and local healthcare programs, was eliminated. By weaving in this group's ties to the Human Genome Project and longstanding debates about whether the principles of public health are incongruent with genomic medicine, I explore the outsized impact this little-known program had on the adoption of genetic testing for cancer and heart disease, on newborn screening, and on our understanding of infectious diseases. I question how the public health might be impacted now that this group is gone and if there's room for a project like this among the healthcare priorities of the new administration. The story showcases my knowledge of the genomic medicine space and my ability to write stories that resonate with a broader audience.
2. Mass General Brigham Becomes Latest US Health System to Adopt Pretreatment DPYD Testing, GenomeWeb, Jan. 16, 2025
Kerin Milesky's husband, Larry Milesky, died horrifically from a chemotherapy overdose in May 2023. By the time he and his doctors at Mass General Hospital found out he had a genetic abnormality that put him at risk for fatal toxicities, it was too late. Kerin Milesky pushed Mass General Brigham to test patients for this deficiency before giving them chemotherapy and avoid future fatalities, and succeeded, putting Mass General Brigham on a short but growing list of US health systems performing this genetic testing. I worked on this story for several months, but the story changed overnight with MGB's decision to routinely offer this testing. I was able to publish a scoop the next morning.
3. Genetic Counselors Question Profession's Future Amid Ongoing Reimbursement Challenges, GenomeWeb, Aug. 8, 2024
Genetic counselors have been fighting for greater recognition of the value they provide in personalizing patient care for well over a decade. But their services continue to be poorly reimbursed. In this article, I investigated how the continued lack of reimbursement for genetic counseling services is impacting the profession's ability to grow and become part of the medical establishment.
4. Cancer Centers Nudge Oncologists Toward DPYD Testing as PGx Supporters Push For Guidelines Change, Precision Medicine Online, Aug. 18, 2022
Individuals with rare variations in a gene called DPYD are at risk of serious adverse events if they're prescribed a popular type of chemotherapy. Families who have seen their loved ones suffer and die from these horrific reactions say it looks like the chemotherapy is burning them from the inside out. Some cancer centers are implementing programs to try to avoid these rare but devastating adverse events by testing patients for DPYD variants before they're prescribed these chemotherapies, but many leading cancer centers, oncologists, and guidelines bodies have not adopted this testing. I was the first reporter to dig into why not and cover this controversy in depth.
5. Myriad Genetics to Submit Hereditary Cancer Risk Variants to ClinVar in 2023, GenomeWeb, Nov. 1, 2022
Myriad Genetics is infamous, derided, and even boycotted in certain circles in the genetic testing community for using its patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to establish a testing monopoly and refusing to share data even after the Supreme Court deemed naturally occurring genes patent ineligible in 2013. Nearly a decade after the court's decision, in a much more crowded and competitive hereditary cancer testing market and undergoing a strategic shake-up, Myriad changed its stance on sharing data. To report on this piece, I drew on my years-long experience covering Myriad Genetics' business and the gene patenting lawsuit from federal district court to the Supreme Court, and interviewed sources I'd cultivated along the way. I was the first to report on this change at the company, which surprised many in the genetic testing field.
6. Coronavirus Testing Delays Yield New Oversight Bill, Shine Light on LDT Regulation Debate, 360Dx, March 16, 2020
At a time when public health and lab industry experts were blaming the FDA for over-regulating labs and hampering early efforts to track how the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread throughout communities, legislators introduced a bill that would place the agency at the helm of an entirely new oversight framework for diagnostics. This article explores the debate, which is still raging today, as to whether FDA can and should regulate lab tests. The debate had particular significance during the global coronavirus pandemic, when the agencies regulatory systems were already under strain. The article is an example of my deep knowledge of diagnostics regulation.
7. Quest Diagnostics Win in Wrongful Death Case Reveals Ongoing Challenges for Variant Classification, GenomeWeb, Nov. 12, 2020
I was the first journalist to write about this lawsuit, which I followed and covered for four years. The case struck a nerve with the genetic testing community by raising questions about what the standard of care is and ought to be for determining the clinical significance of genetic variants and communicating that information to doctors and patients. At a time of rapid growth in the genetic testing industry, while standards of care are still evolving, the potential impact of this case on the field has been analyzed and debated in academic journals, at industry meetings, and within classrooms. This article, which has been cited numerous times, showcases my legal coverage.
8. FDA Stepping Up Actions Against PGx Testing, Forcing Some Labs to Stop Reporting Drug Information, 360Dx, Aug. 16, 2019
I broke this story about the FDA's efforts to quietly shut down pharmacogenetic tests that it hadn't approved -- a move that many in the lab industry say the agency lacks the statutory authority for.
9. Reluctance to Learn Genetic Risk for Cancer Grows With Affordable Care Act Repeal Fears, GenomeWeb, Sept. 25, 2017
People's fears about losing healthcare coverage back in 2017 made some reluctant to get medically recommended genetic testing that could inform their risk for cancer and the care they receive. My deep connections within the genetic counseling community allowed me to report this story.
10. Invitae Failure to Detect Rare Mutation Indicative of Intense Lab Pressures in Competitive Market, GenomeWeb, Aug. 25, 2017
Invitae, a genetic testing lab that had hoped to make genetic testing more accessible and affordable to patients, identified a quality control issue in 2017 that caused several patients to receive results indicating they didn't have a cancer risk mutation when then did. Genetic testing can be a cut-throat industry, with labs often working under cost and resource constraints and vying to capture small markets. I was tipped off to this quality control issue by Invitae's competitors at a time of intense competition in cancer genetics, but I was able to convince the company to speak to me in detail about what had gone wrong and that they'd have to retest 50,000 patients to identify everyone who got a false-negative result -- information that was not reported elsewhere.