Scientific Advisory Board
Dee Burkardt, DO
Scientific Director, Biochemical Geneticist
Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital
25 Michigan St NE, suite 2100
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Quinlyn Highsmith, MS, CGC
Quinlyn Highsmith is a certified genetic counselor working in general genetics and pediatric genetics. She graduated from Howard University with a Bachelor of Science in Human Health and Performance. She received her Master of Genetic Counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University. In her free time, she enjoys poetry, cooking, and playing with her dog.
Kelly Regan-Fendt
Clinical geneticist, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Dr. Kelly Regan-Fendt is an attending clinical geneticist and Gene Therapy Research Scholar in the Edwards Family Division of Genetics and Rare Diseases at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Prior to joining the faculty at Lurie Children’s, she completed her Pediatrics and Genetics training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She completed her PhD in biomedical informatics, focusing on generating and validating computational methods for drug repurposing. In her clinical practice, Dr. Regan-Fendt serves a diverse genetics patient population and several multi-disciplinary genetics clinics. Her funded research projects include conducting the first prospective natural history and biomarker discovery study for CerTra syndrome (CERT1-related disorder) and plans to serve as a clinical site PI for future clinical trials, including n-of-1 antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapy currently under development. Dr. Regan-Fendt is passionate about accelerating treatment discovery research for patients with rare diseases and is thrilled to join the Beyond Primrose team!
Derek B. Sant’Angelo, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Microbiology, and Immunology, VCU School of Medicine, Richmond, VA
Dr. Sant’Angelo received his B.S. from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. from Rutgers University. He was an HHMI Postdoctoral Fellow in the Section of Immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Sant’Angelo has served on the faculty at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Child Health Institute, and currently chairs the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the VCU School of Medicine. Dr. Sant’Angelo has published more than 60 manuscripts in high-impact journals, including Nature Immunology, Immunity, and Science. His papers have been cited nearly 6,000 times, and he has received continuous funding from the NIH and multiple other grant agencies and foundations for over 25 years.
Herodes Guzman, MD, MPH
Clinical geneticist, medical biochemical geneticist and pediatric endocrinologist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Dr. Herodes Guzman is starting as an attending clinical geneticist, medical biochemical geneticist and pediatric endocrinologist in the Divisions of Endocrinology and Diabetes & Genetic and Genomic Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from medical school at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine with a Master of Public Health from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. He then completed his categorical pediatrics residency and a combined fellowship in pediatric endocrinology, genetics and metabolism at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). During fellowship training, he dedicated his clinical and research efforts to evaluating and managing rare endocrine diseases, including disorders of glucose metabolism and endocrine disorders arising in genetic syndromes. His research during fellowship included better characterizing the epidemiology of mitochondrial diabetes within a cohort of patients with genotype-confirmed primary mitochondrial disease and using CHOP's Hyperinsulinism Registry to identify and attempt to understand why certain patients with hyperinsulinism are not diagnosed at birth. With the completion of his fellowship, he is graduating with a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Guzman plans to continue spearheading clinical care and research in rare endocrine diseases, including joining the Beyond Primrose Team!