Carin Lamm, MD

Josie Pervola completed her master of science degree in medical genetics at the University of Cincinnati in 2018. After graduation, Josie worked at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania in a dual clinical and research position. There, she provided genetic counseling to patients with high risk pregnancies in maternal-fetal medicine and also served as a research coordinator for Geisinger’s biobank project, MyCode and for the NIH funded project, PRoGRESS (pediatric reporting of genomic results study). Throughout her years at Geisinger, Josie gained an important perspective on the benefits of personalized medicine and the life-saving preventative care that comes with access to population-based sequencing. Prior to joining Columbia’s Department of Ob/Gyn, Josie continued her passion for providing reproductive genetic counseling services to patients at the Valley Health System in Paramus, NJ. Currently, Josie is an ABGC board-certified genetic counselor in the Division of Women’s Genetics where she works with clients and their reproductive partners at the Center for Prenatal Pediatrics. She is involved in various reproductive genetics research studies, including the utility and validity of prenatal whole genome sequencing with an interest in the ethical considerations involved with returning genomic sequencing results in the setting of pregnancy. Additionally, Josie is involved in Columbia’s Genetic Counseling Graduate Program where she serves as a scholarly project mentor and field work supervisor.

Joshua Milner is a leader in the field of discovery and immunopathogenesis of genetic diseases that lead to allergic symptoms. Among the disorders he has described and/or found major mechanistic insight are PLAID—an immune disorder that leads to lifelong cold urticaria, the glycosylation disorder PGM3 deficiency, ERBIN mutation, CARD11 dominant negative mutations, STAT3 gain-of-function, Hereditary Alpha Tryptasemia Syndrome, IL-6 receptor deficiency, and others. Dr. Milner graduated with an SB in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1995 and an MD with distinction in immunology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, and, as the recipient of the Pediatric Scientist Development Program Fellowship, did his fellowship in allergy and immunology at NIAID. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. William E. Paul, NIAID, examining issues of mouse T-cell receptor repertoires before beginning as an investigator in the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases in the NIAID, where he was eventually named chief. Dr. Milner's vision is to establish how genetic variation can help inform diagnosis and care of all patients with allergic disease—rare and common, severe and mild. This is achieved by performing genetic sequencing on samples from patients with allergic disease of all sorts, as well as performing functional studies on the same patient samples, which together help point to specific immune pathways that may be fundamentally causing disease. This comprehensive analysis, when performed in larger populations, will help personalize medicine so that patients can be better categorized for targeted care. Furthermore, this type of research and care requires a coordinated and comprehensive interdisciplinary approach, taking advantage of the expertise across the department of pediatrics and at multiple outpatient sites.

Dr. Constantinescu has an active clinical practice at Columbia University Medical Center, including care of children with asthma, cystic fibrosis, and technology-dependent conditions (home ventilation by invasive and non-invasive means, mechanically assisted airway clearance, etc.) He participates in the Muscular Dystrophy Clinic at Columbia, for the management of pulmonary complications of neuromuscular disorders. Through the multidisciplinary Motor Neuron Center at Columbia, Dr. Constantinescu is also involved in clinical research in the area of pulmonary function in neuromuscular disease.