Research Overview
Dr. Chung performs genetic research of monogenic and complex traits including diseases such as autism, neurodevelopmental disorders, congenital heart disease, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, esophageal atresia/trachea esophageal fistula, pulmonary hypertension, cardiomyopathies, breast cancer, diabetes, and obesity. She has an h-index of 133 and has identified the genetic basis for over 60 novel human Mendelian conditions and described the clinical phenotype of these diseases. She has made a significant contribution to improving the understanding of the genomic basis for human conditions and implementing that knowledge into clinical care. She has led many genomic studies of autism and neurodevelopmental disorders including SPARK and Simons Searchlight.
She leads multicenter genomic studies of congenital anomalies including DHREAMS and CARE and the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium. She has worked with teams that developed computational methods to predict pathogenicity of missense variants and inframe indels. She has developed AI methods to improve variant interpretation, integrate multiple data types into integrated risk scores, and translated risk predictions into communications providers and patients understand across a wide range of patients.
Dr. Chung has worked on clinical implementation of genomic medicine through eMERGE and used BOADICEA as a breast cancer risk prediction tool across many genetic ancestries. She is the PI of GUARDIAN (Genomic Uniform screening Against Rare Diseases In All Newborns) using genome sequencing to pilot the expansion of conditions included in newborn screening to work towards earlier diagnosis and treatment and greater health equity.
She has been also involved in clinical trials of treatment for rare diseases including N of 1 treatments using ASOs for neurological conditions including KIF1A associated neurological disorder. She extensive experience diagnosing undiagnosed patients using advanced genomic methods.
Research Background
Wendy Chung, M.D., Ph.D. is a clinical and molecular geneticist and the Chief of the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chung directs NIH funded research programs in human genetics of pulmonary hypertension, breast cancer, obesity, diabetes, autism, birth defects including congenital diaphragmatic hernia, esophageal atresia, and congenital heart disease. She is a national leader in the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics.
She was the recipient of the Rare Impact Award from the National Organization of Rare Disorders and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Physicians. Dr. Chung received her B.A. in biochemistry from Cornell University, her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, and her Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University in genetics.
Selected Publications
- Zhou X., Feliciano P., Shu C., Wang T., Astrovskaya I., Hall J.B., Obiajulu J.U., Wright J.R., Murali S.C., Xu S.X., Brueggeman L., Thomas T.R., Marchenko O., Fleisch C., Barns S.D., Snyder L.G., Han B., Chang T.S., Turner T.N., Harvey W.T., Nishida A., O'Roak B.J., Geschwind D.H.; SPARK Consortium; Michaelson J.J., Volfovsky N., Eichler E.E., Shen Y., Chung W.K. Integrating de novo and inherited variants in 42,607 autism cases identifies mutations in new moderate-risk genes. Nature Genetics. 2022 Sep;54(9):1305-1319. PMID: 35982159 PMCID: PMC9470534
- Ziegler, A. Carroll, J. Bain, J.M., Sands, T.T., Fee, R.J., Uher, D., Kanner, C.H., Montes, J., Glass, S., Douville, J., Mignon, L., Gleeson, J.G., Crooke, S.T., Chung, W.K. Antisense oligonucleotide therapy in an individual with KIF1A-associated neurological disorder. Nature Medicine. 30(10):2782-2786. 2024. PMID: 39122967
- Qiao, L., Wynn, J., Yu, L., Hernan, R., Zhou, X., Duron, V., Aspelund, G., Farkouh-Karoleski, C., Zygumunt, A., Krishman, U.S., Nees, S., Khlevner, J., Lim, F.Y., Crombleholme, T., Cusick, R., Azarow, K., Danko, M.E., Chung, D., Warner, B.W., Mychaliska, G.B., Potoka, D., Wagner, A.J., Soffer, S., Schindel, D., McCulley, D.J., Shen, Y., Chung, W.K. Likely Damaging De Novo Variants in Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Patients are Associated with Worse Clinical Outcomes. Genetics in Medicine. 2020 Jul 28. doi: 10.1038/s41436-020-0908-0. PMID: 32719394.
- Zhu, N., Welch, C.L., Wang, J., Allen, P.M., Gonzaga-Jauregui, C., Ma, L., King, A.K., Krishnan, U., Rosenzweig, E.B., Ivy, D.D., Austin, E.D., Hamid, R., Pauciulo, M.W., Lutz, K.A., Nichols, W.C., Reid, J.G., Overton, J.D., Baras, A., Dwey, F.E., Shen, Y., Chung, W.K. Rare Variants in SOX17 are Associated with Pumonary Arterial Hypertension with Congenital Heart Disease. Genome Med. 10(1):56, 2018. PMID: 30029678. PMCID: PMC6054746.
- Zhu, N., Swietlik, E.M., Welch, C.L., Pauciulo, M. W., Hagen, J.J., Zhou, X. Guo, Y., Karten J., Pandya, D., Tilly, T., Lutz, K., Rosenzweig, E.B., Krishnan, U., Coleman, A.W., Juaregui, C.G., Lawire, A., Trembath R. C., Wilkins, M. R., Morrell, N., Shen, y., Graf, Nicols, W., Chung, W.K. Rare Variant Analysis Of 4,241 Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Cases From An International Consortium Implicates FBLN2, PDGFD, And Rare De Novo Variants In PAH. Genome Med. 2021 May 10;13(1):80. doi: 10.1186/s13073-021-00891-1. PMID: 33971972. PMCID: PMC8112021
- Ma, L., Roman-Campos, D., Austin, E.D.., Chung, W.K. A Novel Channelopathy in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. N Engl J Med. 369(4):351-361, 2013. PMID: 23883380. PMCID: PMC379222
- Homsy, J., Zaidi, S., Shen, Y., Ware, J.S., Samocha, K.E., Karczewski, K.J., DePalma, S.R., McKean, D., Wakimoto, H., Gorham, J., Jin, S.C., Deanfield, J., Giardini, A., Porter, G., Kim, R., Bilguvar, K., Lopez, F., Mane, S., Romano-Adesman, A., Qi, H., Vardarajan, B., Ma, L., Daly, M., Roberts, A.E., Russell, M.W., Mital, S., Newburger, J.W., Gaynor, J.W., Breitbart, R.E., Iossifov, I., Ronemus, M., Sanders, S.J., Kaltman, J.R., Seidman, J.G., Gelb, B.D., Goldmuntz, E., Brueckner, M., Lifton, R.P., Seidman, C.E., Chung, W.K. De Novo Mutations in Congenital Heart Disease with Neurodevelopmental and other Congenital Anomalies. Science. 350:1262-1266, 2015. PMCID: PMC4890146
- Ziegler A, Koval-Burt C, Kay DM, Suchy SF, Begtrup A, Langley KG, Hernan R, Amendola LM, Boyd BM, Bradley J, Brandt T, Cohen LL, Coffey AJ, Devaney JM, Dygulska B, Friedman B, Fuleihan RL, Gyimah A, Hahn S, Hofherr S, Hruska KS, Hu Z, Jeanne M, Jin G, Johnson DA, Kavus H, Leibel RL, Lobritto SJ, McGee S, Milner JD, McWalter K, Monaghan KG, Orange JS, Pimentel Soler N, Quevedo Y, Ratner S, Retterer K, Shah A, Shapiro N, Sicko RJ, Silver ES, Strom S, Torene RI, Williams O, Ustach VD, Wynn J, Taft RJ, Kruszka P, Caggana M, Chung WK. Expanded Newborn Screening Using Genome Sequencing for Early Actionable Conditions. JAMA. 2025 Jan 21;333(3):232-240.