Facilities

The Cytogenetics Fellowship training involves formal laboratory and clinical rotations in a number of UTSWMC-affiliated facilities. The Clinical Cytogenetics Laboratory, where fellows will spend the majority of their time, occupies a 7,000 square-foot space that was custom designed in 2002 specifically for the deliv¬ery of cytogenetic services. The space is leased by the University and is considered a part of the facilities of the Department of Pathology. The cytogenetics laboratory provides constitutional and neoplastic cytogenetic analysis of blood, bone marrow, amniotic fluid, chorionic villi, non-neoplastic solid tissue, and solid tumors, using conventional banding techniques and the molecular cytogenetic technology of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The Laboratory is projected to process over 8000 specimens in 2008 which will constitute approximately 14,000 cytogenetic tests. Fellows also rotate through the Metabolic Disease Laboratory (Children's Medical Center), the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory (Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas), and the Baylor College of Medicine Medical Genetics Laboratories (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX). The clinical laboratory rotations include the Genetics and Metabolism Clinic (Children's Medical Center), Genetics and Prenatal Diagnosis Clinic (Parkland Health and Hospital System), UTSWMC Adult Genetics Clinic including General Genetics, Hematological and Lipid Clinics (Aston Ambulatory Care Center), and the Cancer Genetics Clinic (Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center). All of the above facilities are affiliated with UTSWMC with the exception of Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Both of these institutions have issued formal "Laboratory/Clinic Training Arrangement Forms" as required by the ABMG.