Genotypecast with Grey Genetics

By Grey Genetics

What's Genotypecast with Grey Genetics about?

Genetics isn’t always black and white. News stories related to genetics often raise more questions than they answer. On Genotypecast, we bring you insight from genetic counselors.

Your host, Eleanor Griffith, MS, CGC, is a certified genetic counselor and the founder of Grey Genetics, an independent telehealth genetic counseling and consulting service.

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Genotypecast with Grey Genetics episodes:

01.06.2022
Prenatal Screening, False Positives, and NYT's Coverage
On January 1, 2022, the New York Times published an article focused on the high false positive rates of micro-deletions and -duplications in non-invasive prenatal screening tests NIPS/NIPT. The article was entitled, “When They Warn of Rare Disorders, These Prenatal...
05.28.2021
A Conversation with a Palestinian Genetic Counselor
Hebbah Sayed-Ahmad is a Palestinian American prenatal genetic counselor. She shares her experiences as a Palestinian within the genetic counseling profession. She also discusses what has been described as a medical apartheid in Palestine and how the restriction of movement of...
04.22.2021
Later Abortions, Reproductive Justice, and Genetic Counselors’ Obligation to Speak Up
Certified genetic counselor Jordan Brown follows up on Katie Sagaser’s tweets exhorting genetic counselors to speak up for the importance of access to abortions in the third trimester and also to advocate for reproductive rights and reproductive justice more broadly. Do...
12.15.2020
Addressing Health Disparities in Sickle Cell Disease
Certified genetic counselor Barbara W. Harrison discusses how racism impacts the health disparities in Sickle Cell Disease, gene therapies in development, and how these developments are being received by the Sickle Cell Disease Community. Follow Barbara on Twitter: @Barb_DNA_GC Find Barbara on...
10.20.2020
Race-Based Medicine is Bad Medicine
Elizabeth Fieg, MS, CGC expands on her recent Twitter thread, discussing the problems with using categories of race and ancestry to guide test selection in pharmacogenomics and more broadly in medical genetics. She explains how a broader approach to testing...
10.07.2020
The Promise of Gene Therapy in Ocular Genetics
Naomi Wagner, MS, CGC dives into the topic of gene therapy, explaining why ocular genetics is an especially promising area for gene therapy and how discussion of gene therapy with patients is a routine part of her practice in providing...
10.04.2020
NCCN Guidelines & Expanded Recommendations for Germline Testing Based on Tumor Genomic Testing Results
Karen Huelsman MS, LGC discusses recent NCCN guideline updates which expand genetic testing criteria (for high-penetrance hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer susceptibility genes) to include any mutation identified on tumor testing that has clinical implications if also identified in the...
09.23.2020
When a NYT Article Stirs up Confusion about Reproductive Genetics
Certified genetic counselor Brianne Kirkpatrick discusses the recent New York Times article “When a DNA Test Says You’re a Younger Man, Who Lives 5,000 Miles Away.” How surprising is this story? What are the implications for law enforcement? Should a...
09.03.2020
Black in Genetic Counseling
Certified genetic counselor Deanna Darnes was the first Black student to graduate from her genetic counseling training program of The University of Texas Genetic Counseling Program (UTGCP) in 2010. Ten years later, there are over 5,000 genetic counselors in the...
08.28.2020
ACOG Now Recommends that NIPS be offered to all pregnant women
Certified genetic counselor Emily Goldberg discusses the new ACOG guidelines related to Screening for Fetal Chromosomal Abnormalities. ACOG (The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology) now recommends that NIPS (Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening) be offered to all women, rather than to...
06.23.2020
Structural Racism in Genetic Testing
Certified genetic counselor Aishwarya Arjunan, MS, MPH, CGC, CPH expands on her recent tweet, which got a lot of attention from genetic counselors on Twitter: I always use myself as an example, why should I get a test with a 55%...
02.18.2020
Cascade Testing: Can Telehealth Help Make it Happen?
One of the benefits of identifying hereditary cancer mutations in individuals is Cascade Testing—being able to offer targeted testing to family members to identify others who are at high risk as well as those who are average risk. Yet historical...
01.21.2020
Changing and discrepant variant classifications: Can you trust genetic testing results?
The Wall Street Journal recently profiled a family whose BRCA2 variant was reclassified—from Pathogenic to a Variant of Uncertain Significance. This difference in classification has important implications for medical management recommendations. The family profiled, however, made irreversible decisions years ago,...
01.20.2020
ACMG Opposition to HR 3235—and the Backlash
On January 9, the American College of Medical Genetics sent a letter to members of the House of Representatives, voicing their opposition to HR 3235, a bill that would allow genetic counselors to be reimbursed by CMS for providing genetic...
12.18.2019
George Church’s DigiD8 Brings Eugenics to Dating Apps
Certified genetic counselor Katya Orlova discusses George’s Church’s new venture, DigiD8, which aims to add a new layer to how people match on dating apps: preventing matches between individuals who are both carriers for the same autosomal recessive condition. (DigiD8’s...
11.06.2019
Panel Testing: Insurance Coverage and Clinical Utility
Certified genetic counselor Kate Wilson discusses both clinical care and insurance billing and coverage issues surrounding gene panel testing. Numerous studies have shown higher positive rates when testing with larger panels. Why do higher positive rates not necessarily lead to...
10.25.2019
Carrier Screening Panels are Getting Bigger… Is that Better?
On this second episode of Genotypecast, certified genetic counselor Amber Gamma discusses the continued expansion of Universal Carrier Screening panels—business motivations, clinical utility, impact on patient care, and some of the risks and complications of interpretation that come along with...
09.24.2019
DNA Donations: Implications to Consider
On this first episode of Genotypecast, certified genetic counselor Brianne Kirkpatrick of Watershed DNA reviews two recent news stories related to cord blood and sperm donations, discussing the risks and unknowns associated with each as well as the implications for...

What's Genotypecast with Grey Genetics about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Genotypecast with Grey Genetics episodes:

Prenatal Screening, False Positives, and NYT's Coverage

A Conversation with a Palestinian Genetic Counselor

Later Abortions, Reproductive Justice, and Genetic Counselors’ Obligation to Speak Up

Addressing Health Disparities in Sickle Cell Disease

Race-Based Medicine is Bad Medicine

The Promise of Gene Therapy in Ocular Genetics

NCCN Guidelines & Expanded Recommendations for Germline Testing Based on Tumor Genomic Testing Results

When a NYT Article Stirs up Confusion about Reproductive Genetics

Black in Genetic Counseling

ACOG Now Recommends that NIPS be offered to all pregnant women

Structural Racism in Genetic Testing

Cascade Testing: Can Telehealth Help Make it Happen?

Changing and discrepant variant classifications: Can you trust genetic testing results?

ACMG Opposition to HR 3235—and the Backlash

George Church’s DigiD8 Brings Eugenics to Dating Apps

Panel Testing: Insurance Coverage and Clinical Utility

Carrier Screening Panels are Getting Bigger… Is that Better?

DNA Donations: Implications to Consider