Georgia Wiesner Adjunct Professor

Department of Genetics School of Medicine Case Western Reserve University Biomedical Research Building 630 2109 Adelbert Road Cleveland, Ohio 44106-4955 Tel: Fax: E-mail:

About Georgia Wiesner

Dr. Georgia L. Wiesner is currently an Associate Professor of Genetics and Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and is the director of the Center for Human Genetics at University Hospitals of Cleveland.

She received her MS in Biochemical Genetics in 1981 from the University of Minnesota Graduate School and subsequently received her MD from the university of Minnesota Medical School in 1985.

She completed her residency in Internal Medicine in 1988 and served as Chief Medical Resident for the Veterans Administration Medical Centre and the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota in 1989.

After completing her fellowship in Medical Genetics at the University of Minnesota in 1992, she became an Instructor of Medicine. In 1994, she joined the Case Western Reserve University faculty as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2001. In 2003, she was appointed Director to the Center for Human Genetics.

Dr. Wiesner is board certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics and by the American Board of Internal Medicine.
She is an active member of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) and the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) where she is a member of the Professional Practice and Guidelines committee and the adult common disease special interest group.

Dr. Wiesner is actively involved in medical education and serves as a member of the American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG) and on the American college of Graduate Medical Education Genetics Residency Review Committee. She is the editor-in-chief of the PDQ.

Research

Dr. Wiesner’s primary interest is to understand the influence of familial factors on the development of cancer.

Research in basic tumor biology has advanced rapidly since the understanding that all cancers are caused by somatic molecular mutations in key regulatory genes. Subsequently, the contribution of familial factors to the development of cancers has become the focus of national attention. It is now estimated that approximately 5 to 10 % of all cancers are caused by a specific gernline mutation, while 20 to 30 % of common cancers have a strong genetic component.

Research in Dr. Wiesner’s laboratory is focused on the genetic dissection of colorectal cancer (CRC). CRC is the third most common cancer of American men and women and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths. While the genes for several inherited forms of CRC have been identified, such as Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) or Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colo-rectal Cancer (HNPCC), these CRC susceptibility syndromes only account for about 10% of the nearly 140,000 cases of CRC diagnosed each year. In addition, family studies indicate that people with a family history of either CRC or colon adenomatous polyps are 2 to 5 times more likely to develop the disease. Thus, most CRC are caused by unknown genetic factors, interaction between genes or interaction between genes and environmental influences.

Dr. Wiesner is the co-Principal Investigator of CWRU/Ireland Comprehensive Cancer Center Colon Neoplasia Sibling Study or the CNSS, which is designed to identify novel genes causing CRC and to investigate the influence of know genetic factors on the development of adenomatous polyps of the colon and CRC. This NCI funded study has identified and characterised nearly 550 families with colon Neoplasia and has a repository of DNA samples on affected and unaffected individuals in these families. Two major CNSS projects are currently underway. First, gene linkage analysis using the affected sibling pair method is being performed on several candidate genes for CRC. We have successfully used this approach to exclude COX2, a gene known to be unregulated in the progression of CRC, as an inherited CRC susceptibility gene. Second, kinders with two or more affected siblings have been accepted by the Centre for Inherited Disease Research at HIH for a full genome scan. The genotypes generated from this scan will allow us to identify previously unsuspected loci in the initiation or progression of the disease. Analysis of the genome score information is currently underway.

Dr. Wiesner is also interested in studying how genetic tests are used in clinical medicine. This is an important area of discovery as new molecular tests for cancer risk assessment, such as tests for breast cancer, have recently been developed. Unfortunately, there is little information on the clinical utility of predictive testing for cancers that will guide the practicing physician in the proper use of such tests. Current clinical projects that address this issue include the development of an automated system to gather and assess family histories of cancer, assessment of counselling procedures for individual with an increased genetic risk for cancer and correlation of clinical expression of familial cancers to known cancer risk factors. These clinical studies will enhance our ability to aid physicians and patients in understanding the complex issues related to genetic testing for cancer risk.

Selected Publications