Dr. Cara L. Biddle

William Gahl is a Medical Genetics specialist and a Pediatrics provider in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Gahl is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Microcephaly. His top areas of expertise are Oculocutaneous Albinism Type 2, Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome, Oculocutaneous Albinism Type 1, Oculocutaneous Albinism, and Deep Brain Stimulation.

Dr. Julie Hoover-Fong is a Professor of Genetic Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Greenberg Center for Skeletal Dysplasias at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Hoover-Fong holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Nutrition from The Ohio State University, where she also completed her medical degree. She received her Ph.D. in the Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Hoover-Fong completed a pediatric internship and residency at Washington University in St. Louis and a fellowship in medical genetics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She joined the Johns Hopkins University faculty in 2002 and progressed to Professor of Genetic Medicine and Pediatrics in 2019. She practices and oversees the clinical operations, research and educational ventures for the patients, families and healthcare providers served by the Greenberg Center. Her clinical team develops and improves diagnostic and treatment guidelines for comprehensive care of patients with all types of bone conditions including dwarfism, orofacial clefting, craniosynostosis and more. Dr. Hoover-Fong also mentors and teaches medical students, residents and genetic medicine trainees. As an active clinical researcher, Dr. Hoover-Fong is the Principal Investigator of multiple global clinical trials for achondroplasia, the first multi-center, investigator-initiated natural history study for achondroplasia, and multiple clinical studies for patients with orofacial clefting, hypophosphatasia and other conditions. She is also a co-investigator on the ELSI and Phenotype Review Committees for the Mendel Project, a whole exome sequencing venture to identify the genetic cause of Mendelian conditions. From an institutional service perspective, Dr. Hoover-Fong serves on the Johns Hopkins Associate Professor Promotions Committee and the Advisory Committee for the Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation. She serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the Little People of America, is a member of the Miller-Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence at Johns Hopkins University and is a charter member of the International Skeletal Dysplasia Management Consortium, publishing best practice guidelines for patients with skeletal dysplasias. Dr. Hoover is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Microcephaly. Her top areas of expertise are Achondroplasia, Rhizomelic Syndrome, Spondyloepimetaphyseal Dysplasia Strudwick Type, Adenoidectomy, and Myringotomy.

Sonja Rasmussen, MD, MS is Professor in the Department of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She joined Johns Hopkins after 4 years at the University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine and College of Public Health and Health Professions where she served as a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Epidemiology, and Obstetrics and Gynecology and as the Director of UF’s Precision Health Program. Before joining University of Florida in 2018, she served for 20 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, where she held several scientific leadership roles. She served in leadership roles during several CDC responses to public health emergencies, including 2009 H1N1 influenza, H7N9 influenza, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Zika virus. Dr. Rasmussen is an author on >300 peer-reviewed publications and is the lead editor of The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual, released by Oxford University Press in 2019. Her research interests focus on understanding the effects of infections and medications during pregnancy, genetic and environmental risk factors for birth defects, and morbidity and mortality associated with genetic conditions. Dr. Rasmussen is rated as an Advanced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Microcephaly. Her top areas of expertise are Microcephaly, Achalasia Microcephaly Syndrome, Gastroschisis, and Cortical Dysplasia.