Vijay Tonk, PhD has directed the Cytogenetics & Genomics Division at Texas Tech for 26 years. He is certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics and is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. He received training at Michigan State and Boston Universities with an academic position at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center before assuming his present full professorship with tenure at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. Dr. Tonk has over 120 publications in clinically oriented, peer-reviewed journals and has published through Springer with Herman Wyandt a book cataloguing key variations in chromosomes and DNA that has become the premier resource in that field. His main interests have been in constitutional and cancer genetics, greatly expanding his Texas Tech Cytogenetic and Genomics Laboratory by developing state-of-the art testing and by building relationships with pediatric and obstetric subspecialists in West Texas hospitals ranging from Amarillo to El Paso. He has developed new testing services like fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and comparative genomic hybridization (a-CGH/microarray), applying those techniques to patients with conditions ranging from intellectual disability/autism to various types of cancer. His laboratory is among the few to receive recurring College of American Pathology certification with no negative citations and to acheive certification by the Children’s Oncology Group as one of two genetic testing centers in West Texas. Dr. Tonk is now developing panels of cancer gene rearrangements using massive parallel or NextGen sequencing (NGS) that couple detection of causative chromosome translocations with analysis of the DNA deletions or rearrangements that occur at their breakpoints. This initiative will continue his unique approach of combining new technology with clinical collaboration and is expected to provide hematology-oncology physicians throughout West Texas with the latest in cancer genetic services.
Languages
- English
- Hindi
Interests
- Cognitive/developmental problems
- Congenital/developmental disorders
- Infertility
- Leukemia
- Molecular genetics
- Pediatric Development
- Prenatal