June Updates From The Chromosome 18 Clinical Research Center
Pictured above: Jesus Vasquez explaining his project to Dr. Ed Brooks.
Pictured above: Ali Mansoor explaining his project to Dr. Alex Pertsemlidis.
Pictured above left to right: Ali Mansoor, Brittany Antopia, Dr. Jannine Cody, and Aamuktha Pentala.
Updates from the Chromosome 18 Clinical Research Center
The University of Texas Health, Department of Pediatrics Annual Research Forum was held on May 15, 2026. The Chromosome 18 Clinical Research Center presented posters on two of the current projects. One of the primary ways in which scientists share their work is through poster presentations like these at scientific meetings.
Top left photo: The first poster was presented by Jesus Vasquez, who is a graduate student in the laboratory of Jenny Hsieh.The goal of this project is to determine how well nerve cells work that are from people with 18q- and dysmyelination.
Top right photo:The second poster is presented by Ali Mansoor who is an undergraduate student working with Mahnaz Syed in the Department of Population Health at UT Health. The project is using AI to interpret our huge collection of scanned medical records, many of them handwritten notes, and extracting the pertinent facts for entry into our clinical database. Dr. Syed also presented this poster at the UT Health Institute for the Integration of Medicine and Science Research Day where he was awarded a first place.
Is your family planning to come to the Annual Family Conference in San Antonio this summer? We will be doing blood draws at Conference for those who want to enroll in the Clinical Research Center study. If you are interested in enrolling and completing your blood draws at this year's Conference, please reach out to chromosome18@uthscsa.eduas there are steps you will need to complete prior to coming to Conference.
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