Tonya Palermo, PhD, is a
pediatric psychologist and a
Professor in the Department
of Anesthesiology and Pain
Medicine at University of
Washington
with
adjunct
appointments in Pediatrics
and Psychiatry. Dr. Palermo
received her BA in psychology
from the University of California at Los Angeles and her MA
and PhD in clinical psychology from Case Western Reserve
University. She completed her predoctoral internship in
pediatric psychology at Columbus Children’s Hospital and
a postdoctoral fellowship at Rainbow Babies & Children’s
Hospital in pediatric psychology/pain management.
Dr. Palermo has a NIH-funded research program in the
area of pediatric chronic pain and sleep. She is specifically
interested in cognitive-behavioral interventions, delivery of
psychological treatment via the internet, sleep disturbances
and parent/family factors. She has published over 110 peer-
reviewed articles and a book on cognitive-behavioral therapy
for chronic pain in children and adolescents. Dr. Palermo
has held leadership positions in the American Psychological
Association and the American Pain Society. She is a Fellow
of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Palermo is
an Associate Editor for the
Clinical Journal of Pain
and for
the
Journal of Pediatric Psychology
. Dr. Palermo also serves
as a regular member of an NIH study section, Behavioral
Medicine Interventions and Outcomes. Training and
mentorship are an important part of Dr. Palermo’s work and
she serves as Program Director for the T32 Anesthesiology
and Perioperative Medicine Research Training Program at
the University of Washington.
Mehdi Tafti, PhD, received
his doctorate working with
Dr. Michel Billiard at the
University of Montpellier-France
investigating the regulation of
sleep in narcolepsy. Dr. Tafti
subsequently joined the Center
for Narcolepsy Research at
Stanford University where he
worked with Dr. Emmanuel
Mignot on neuroanatomy, pharmacology and genetics of
canine narcolepsy. In 1995, Dr. Tafti established the first
laboratory dedicated to the genetics of sleep and sleep
disorders at the Department of Psychiatry, University of
Geneva-Switzerland. In 2004, he joined the Center for
Integrative Genomics at Lausanne University-Switzerland
as an associate professor. Dr. Tafti acts as the founding
co-director of the Center for Investigation and Research
in Sleep at the Lausanne University Hospital. Dr. Tafti was
promoted to full professor (neurogenetics) in 2011 at the
University of Lausanne-Switzerland.
Research in his laboratories focuses on the molecular basis
of sleep and sleep disorders. His group identified several
genes that regulate the sleep EEG in mice. He is also one of
the leading experts in narcolepsy research and member of
the European Narcolepsy Network. Dr. Tafti was the first to
discover TRIB2 auto-antibodies in narcolepsy, a mutation in
MOG that causes a familial form of narcolepsy, a HLA allele
that strongly protects against narcolepsy and introduced
intravenous immunoglobulin therapy for narcolepsy with
cataplexy.
TONYA PALERMO, PHD
Sleep and Pediatric Chronic Pain:
Innovative Approaches to Assessment
and Treatment
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
9:05am – 10:05am
MEHDI TAFTI, PHD
Molecular Genetics of Sleep
Tuesday, June 4, 2014
1:30pm – 2:30pm
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