Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health

Phone:

(317) 274-3901

Email:

bmhelm@iu.edu

Departments:

Epidemiology

Degrees:

MS, Medical and Molecular Genetics: Genetic Counseling, Indiana University School of Medicine

Biography

I am a genetic counselor with specific interests in cardiovascular genetics, congenital malformations, rare diseases, and public health genomics. My work is with the Cardiovascular Genetics program at IU School of Medicine under the direction of Stephanie Ware, MD, PhD. My work in this program has included the development of cardiovascular genetics services for outpatient and inpatient settings tailored to specific diseases. Based on my clinical experiences, my interests are varied: inherited arrhythmias, cardiomyopathies, congenital cardiovascular malformations, and familial hypercholesterolemia. I have developed interests in the genetic architecture of inherited cardiovascular diseases and malformations, specifically in exploring multifactorial etiologies and polygenic risk scores for predicting disease.

Research Interests

Polygenic risk stratification/scores for inherited cardiovascular disease, familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), lipoprotein A, congenital cardiovascular malformations, sudden unexplained/cardiac death and post-mortem genetic testing, public health genomics