Even though the Bay Area is home to a number of prestigious medical schools, there hasn’t been a primary training ground for genetic counselors in the region since the program at UC Berkeley closed in 2002.

That void is about to be filled, as SF State collaborates with three other area universities and several local hospitals on a new graduate program in genetic counseling.

The new program, currently in the planning stages, is expected to begin in Fall 2007 with a class of 10 students. Plans call for a two-year track of classes and internships.

Besides SF State, the program will operate in conjunction with Cal State Stanislaus, San Jose State, and UCSF. Although the degree will come from CSU Stanislaus, most of the classes will be held on the San Francisco area campuses.

According to Dr. Michael Goldman, chair of the biology department at SF State, the school will house part-time office space for interested students to get information about the program. SF State will also provide at least one class in human genetics as part of the degree program.

Dr. Janey Youngblom, professor of biological sciences at CSU Stanislaus and a co-director of the program, said the sequence will be composed of clinical science, medical genetics and psychosocial courses.

“We hope to develop a stronger partnership with San Francisco State,” Youngblom said. “We want to try to get more faculty involved with it.”

“It seems we have very energetic, very interested, very dedicated people in this profession who want this to work,” Youngblom said.

Along with the course work, students will also have an opportunity to do apprentice work in genetic counseling at Kaiser Permanente and other local hospitals.

Kaiser gave an $80,000 grant for the first year of the new program, and will continue to fund the program at the same level over the next two years if there is satisfactory progress, Youngblom said.

The closure of UC Berkeley’s genetic counseling program was a result of “financial and political reasons,” said Dr. Laurie Nemzer, genetic counselor at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland and another co-director of the new program.

“It was a very small student number, just eight students,” Nemzer said. “It was nationally acclaimed, but I think it just wasn’t high priority enough for their School of Public Health.”

Genetic counselors offer assistance to patients and families who may be at risk of birth defects or other inherited conditions. They help patients with testing, analyze and interpret the results of genetic tests, and provide guidance and support for patients and their families throughout the entire process.

Those associated with the new program say that the interest in genetics has surged with efforts such as the Human Genome Project, which sought to identify all of the roughly 20,000 to 25,000 genes in human DNA among other things.

“The field of genetics is exploding,” Nemzer said. “There’s more and more of a need for people to understand it.”

The many decisions and dilemmas associated with diagnosing genetic disorders, such as offering patients support and assistance following the diagnosis, are things that genetic counselors are qualified to handle, Goldman said.

When it comes to genetics, Goldman said, “The average physician’s knowledge is not that great. They don’t have the time it takes to explain things to people.”

Nemzer said there is currently a shortage of qualified genetic counselors, but there will be a greater need for them as illnesses such as heart disease become attributed to genetics.

“It’s becoming more and more into primary care,” Nemzer said. “We think there’s going to be more and more positions.”