Prader Willi Syndrome Resource Center
Health ConditionsGenetic DiseasesPrader Willi Syndrome

Prader Willi Syndrome

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Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic condition that starts in infancy and causes physical, mental, and behavioral issues. Key symptoms present from birth include low muscle tone - babies often feel floppy when held - distinct facial features, and poor sucking reflex. As the child ages, they develop insatiable food cravings because they never feel full, as well as intellectual challenges and behavioral issues. Treatment is available and requires a high level of care from a team of specialists.

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Joy Tanaka, PhD

Medical Reviewer

Joy Tanaka, PhD, specializes in clinical molecular genetics. She is dedicated to integrating excellent clinical care with cutting-edge medical research for patients with rare and undiagnosed disorders, and is focused on pursuing questions at the interface between genetics and human disease with the goal of developing novel therapies and treatments.

Dr. Tanaka received her PhD from Yale University School of Medicine, where she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Scholar and recipient of the George Robert Pfeiffer Fellowship for Translational Medicine. She completed her clinical fellowship in cytogenetics and clinical molecular genetics at Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital, and is currently associate clinical laboratory director at Rady Children's Hospital Institute for Genomic Medicine in San Diego, California.

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Bhargavi Patham, MD, PhD

Medical Reviewer

Bhargavi Patham, MD, is board-certified in internal medicine as well as endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism. She is currently practicing academic medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas.

Patham received her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from Government Medical College in Nagpur, India. She received her PhD in cell biology from the University of Georgia in Athens in 2005, and then completed two years of post-doctoral training in immunology at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

Patham completed her residency in internal medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, where she was previously an assistant professor of pathophysiology and cell biology at the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. She completed her endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism fellowship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

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Resources
  1. Prader-Willi Syndrome. Mayo Clinic. November 14, 2024.