PITTSBURGH, May 11, 1999 — The University of Pittsburgh’s Genetics Education and Counseling Program has received a $115,000 grant from the Ladies Hospital Aid Society of Western Pennsylvania (LHAS) to continue its mission informing the community about genetic disease risk and available counseling services.
"With the help of the LHAS, we can continue to provide education and counseling services to the many people in western Pennsylvania who are concerned about their risk of genetic disease," said John Barranger, M.D., Ph.D., director of the university’s Genetics Education and Counseling Program, the Center for the Study and Treatment of Jewish Genetic Diseases and the Gaucher Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center. Dr. Barranger also co-directs the university’s Human Gene Therapy Applications Laboratory and is a professor in the university’s departments of molecular genetics and biochemistry, pediatrics and human genetics.
"We are impressed with how the Genetics Education and Counseling Program has translated for the community the important genetic research and services performed by the Center for the Study and Treatment of Jewish Genetic Diseases," said Anna L. Kann, president of the LHAS. "This kind of education for the people we serve is exactly what we had hoped for from this program."
The $115,000 grant reflects the proceeds of the 1997 LHAS Ball, a charity event held each November in Pittsburgh. Since 1997, the LHAS has helped support the mission and activities of the Genetics Education and Counseling Program.
The Genetics Education and Counseling Program, a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is dedicated to providing up-to-date information about inherited conditions and related services for individuals, families, communities and health professionals. Through workshops and written materials, it provides information about familial cancers and inherited metabolic disorders, including conditions that occur more frequently in the Ashkenazic Jewish population. The program also helps individuals get referrals to clinical and testing services in genetics.
For more than 100 years, The LHAS has served western Pennsylvania through its work. The LHAS acts on Jewish values in support of people needing health care and related services. The LHAS has supported research, provided medical equipment, financed hospital construction and funded health-related educational programs, innovative social services and youth scholarships. For more information about the Genetics Education and Counseling Program, please visit http://www.pitt.edu/~edugene. For additional information about the Center for the Study and Treatment of Jewish Genetic Diseases, people should call 1-800-334-7980.
For additional information about the LHAS, contact 412-648-6106.