Annabelle Frantz graduated from North Carolina State University with a BS in Human Biology and minors in Genetics and Psychology in 2020. While at NC State, Annabelle volunteered in Dr. Heather Patisual’s lab and assisted with multiple research projects which investigated how endocrine disrupting environmental chemicals affect gene expression in the brain and, consequently, might heighten risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. She also worked at RTI International in 2019 as a research assistant on the Early Check project, which aims to expand newborn screening panels with additional actionable conditions. Her experiences at RTI included helping to drive the health literacy of information disseminated about Early Check via the website and tracking website analytics. She also acted as a research assistant in qualitative research on uptake of the Early Check program.
Annabelle joined the Berg Lab in 2020 while working as an assistant ClinGen coordinator with multiple ClinGen gene and variant curation expert panels, as well as various actionability working groups and is currently involved in the Stakeholder Partnership, Community Curation, and FDA working groups in ClinGen. She is also currently working as a Social/Clinical Research Assistant for the UNC Program for Precision Medicine in Health Care (PPMH) and is excited to build on her previous research experience at RTI with her involvement in the Precision Health Genetic Screening test. She plans to pursue a career in genetic counseling.
