Johns Hopkins University

Duke University

Kennedy Krieger Institute, Inc.

Matthew Shirley

Jonathan Pevsner

Anne Comi

Douglas A Marchuk

The present invention relates to the fields of neurological and skin disorders. More specifically, the present invention provides methods and compositions for diagnosing and prognosing Sturge-Weber Syndrome (SWS), Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome (KTWS), and Port Wine Stains (PWS). In one embodiment, a method for prognosing or monitoring treatment of a patient with SWS, KTWS and/or PWS comprises the steps of (a) providing a sample from the patient undergoing treatment; (b) determining the number of alleles in the sample comprising at least one activating somatic mutation in the guanine nucleotide-binding protein G subunit alpha (GNAQ) gene or protein; (c) comparing the number of alleles comprising the at least one somatic mutation to the number of alleles comprising the somatic mutation from a patient sample provided prior to undergoing treatment; and (d) determining that the patient is improving if there is a decrease in the number of alleles comprising the at least one somatic mutation from the sample of step (a).

Growing community of inventors

Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Matthew Shirley