Principal Investigator Ray E. Hershberger, MD Associate Chief, Cardiovascular Division Director, Advanced Heart Failure Therapies Program Director, Translational Cardiovascular Genetic Medicine Dr. Hershberger is a clinical and laboratory scientist who directs the FDC Research Project.  He received his B.A. in 1975 at Goshen College and his M.D. in 1978 at the University of Nebraska.  He completed an internship in internal medicine at the Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC from 1978-79, and his residency in internal medicine at the Wichita Affiliated Hospitals Program in Internal Medicine of the University of Kansas from 1979-81. He completed two years as an internal medicine physician in the Public Health Service in the Navajo Area Indian Health Service at Shiprock, New Mexico, 1981-83. He returned to his internal medicine program Kansas as a Chief Resident and then an Instructor in Internal Medicine from 1983-85. He completed a research fellowship (1985-88) and clinical training (1988-89) in cardiovascular disease at the University of Utah. He also completed a heart failure and cardiac transplantation fellowship at Utah (1989-90). He joined the Division of Cardiology at OHSU in 1990 as an Assistant Professor of Medicine as a heart failure and transplant cardiologist. He founded the FDC Research Project in 1993 when he also became the Director of Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation at OHSU.  In 2007, he moved to the Miller Medical School at the University of Miami, where he became Associate Chief of the Division of Cardiology, Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Therapies Program, and Director of Translational Cardiovascular Genetic Medicine.  He continues to oversee the FDC project at its new location in Miami.

Clinical Science Personnel
Jill D. Siegfried, RN, MS, CGC Certified Genetic Counselor, Cardiovascular Division Jill D. Siegfried, certified genetic counselor, graduated from University of Delaware in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and in Educational Studies. She received her Master of Science in Medical Genetics from the University of Cincinnati in 2004 and recently completed a Bachelor of Nursing in May 2008 from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, PA.  Prior to joining the FDC project, Ms. Siegfried worked for 4 years as Program Coordinator of the Cancer Risk Evaluation Program (CREP) at the Joan Karnell Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital.  Ms. Siegfried provided clinical cancer genetic counseling to all patients and family members referred to the program, as well as providing physicians and staff education on issues related to the genetics of cancer and other complex diseases.  Ms Siegfried’s past research experience focused on the study of spatial cognition in children with William syndrome, involvement in cognitive and behavioral twin studies through the Western Reserve Reading Project, and, most recently, extensive involvement in the recruitment and enrollment of patients in familial cancer research studies at University of Pennsylvania. Her roles in the FDC Project consist of enrolling new families, constructing pedigrees, addressing genetic counseling issues, publishing the “FDC Beat” triannual newsletter, and increasing physician referrals.
Laboratory Scientists & Personnel Duanxiang Li, MD, MS Assistant Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division Dr. Li received his doctor of medicine degree at Hengyang Medical College in China, and completed a post-graduate training at Hubei Medical College of Wuhan University and a cardiovascular research fellowship at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. He then spent six years at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he was an Instructor of Medicine and a laboratory researcher in the genetics of cardiomyopathies. He has published in the medical literature and presented at scientific conferences extensively on FDC and other cardiovascular genetics research. In 2002 he joined the FDC Project at OHSU as a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine, where his main interests are mapping the genes responsible for familial cardiovascular diseases and investigating the pathogenesis of heart failure. In 2007 he accompanied Dr. Hershberger to the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami, where he continues his work on the FDC Research Project and other related studies.
Nadine Norton, PhD Assistant Professor, Cardiovascular Division Dr. Norton received her Bachelor's degree in Biology at the University of Manchester and her PhD in Psychiatric Genetics at the University of Wales College of Medicine, United Kingdom. She then spent seven years as a postdoctoral Research Fellow, studying the molecular genetics of schizophrenia at Cardiff University, United Kingdom. She has extensively published in the scientific literature and presented at scientific conferences on molecular genetic methodologies and the mapping of disease susceptibility genes in complex genetic traits. Dr. Norton joined the FDC project as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in November 2008. Her main research focuses are the use of high throughput DNA sequencing technologies and the study of gains and losses of DNA copy number to identify disease causing variation in dilated cardiomyopathy. Jorge Gonzalez-Quintana, BS Research Associate, Cardiovascular Division Mr. Quintana received his Bachelor degree in Biology from the University of Havana in 1998. While in Cuba, he worked as a researcher at the Molecular Biology Department from Finlay Institute, participating in different projects on human vaccines research and development. He also took postgraduate courses at the University of Havana and in the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, China. In 2004 he joined the University of Miami’s Diabetes Research Institute, as a research associate assisting with molecular biology projects. In 2007 he joined the FDC’s Cardiovascular Molecular Genetics lab, where he participates in different molecular and functional studies of DNA mutations found in FDC patients and isolates genomic DNA from patient blood samples.   (updated April 2010)