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 LosAngeles and her MA and PhD in clinical psychology
fromCaseWesternReserveUniversity. She completed her
predoctoral internship in pediatric psychology at Columbus
Children’sHospital andapostdoctoral fellowshipatRainbow
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
andparent/family factors. Shehaspublishedover 110peer-
reviewedarticlesandabookoncognitive-behavioral therapy
for chronic pain in children and adolescents. Dr. Palermo
hasheld leadershippositions in theAmericanPsychological
Association and theAmericanPainSociety. She is aFellow
of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Palermo is
anAssociate Editor for the
Clinical Journal of Pain
and for
the
Journal ofPediatricPsychology
.Dr.Palermoalsoserves
as a regular member of an NIH study section, Behavioral
Medicine Interventions and Outcomes. Training and
mentorship are an important part of Dr. Palermo’swork and
she serves as ProgramDirector for theT32Anesthesiology
and Perioperative Medicine Research Training Program at
theUniversity ofWashington.
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 inhis laboratories focuses on themolecular basis
of sleep and sleep disorders. His group identified several
genes that regulate thesleepEEG inmice.He isalsooneof
the leading experts in narcolepsy research andmember of
the European Narcolepsy Network. Dr. Tafti was the first to
discover TRIB2 auto-antibodies in narcolepsy, amutation in
MOG that causes a familial form of narcolepsy, aHLAallele
that strongly protects against narcolepsy and introduced
intravenous immunoglobulin therapy for narcolepsy with
cataplexy.
TONYAPALERMO, PHD
Sleep andPediatricChronicPain:
InnovativeApproaches toAssessment
andTreatment
Wednesday, June4, 2014 | 9:05am – 10:05am
Room 101E
MEHDI TAFTI, PHD
MolecularGeneticsof Sleep
Tuesday, June 3, 2014 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm
RoomL100H
InvitedLecturers
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