Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH	BA	06/1986	Biology
Tufts Medical School, Boston, MA	PhD	05/1995	Molecular Biology
Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, MA		06/1999	Post-Doc - Genetics
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA		08/1998	Clinical Cytogenetics
U. Washington Medical School, Seattle, WA		07/2000	Post-Doc - Genetics

Clinical:
Dr Giersch is a ABMGG board certified Clinical Cytogeneticist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She participates in review and sign-out of all case types (constitutional and cancer specimens) and all testing modalities offered in the lab (karyotype, FISH, SNP microarray). y.
Research:
Dr. Giersch's research is focused on the genetics of hearing and hearing loss. She is involved currently in two major efforts. She is a co-investigator in the SEQaBOO project (Sequencing a Baby for an Optimal Outcome) which is performing whole genome sequencing on newborns who do not pass their newborn hearing screen, in an effort to identify best practices for integrating WGS into newborn screening.
She is investigating the genetics of age-related hearing loss (ARHL), the most common sensory disorder world-wide. She is involved in several genome wide association studies (GWAS) in an effort to discover genetic influences on ARHL, including one recent study which identified several new genes associated with ARHL. She is also collaborating with 23 and Me to administer surveys and on-line hearing tests to their participants.