The Feingold Service at Mass General for Children

The Feingold Service Staff

David Sweetser, MD, PhD

Dr. David Sweetser is the Chief of Medical Genetics and Metabolism at Mass General Hospital. He is also an Attending Physician in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, and the Co-Director of Pitt Hopkins Clinic. Dr. Sweetser graduated with Honors from Stanford University, then completed his MD/PhD at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Pediatric Residency training at St. Louis Children’s Hosp. He completed his Medical Genetics Fellowship training at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Washington in Seattle along with a Biochemical Genetics Fellowship. He subsequently completed a Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is Board Certified in Clinical Genetics and Genomics, Clinical Biochemical Genetics, as well as Pediatric Hematology-Oncology.

Since 2003 Dr. Sweetser has been at MGH and sees patients in Medical Genetics and Metabolism and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. He specializes in children and adults with metabolic disease, neurodevelopment disorders, complex undiagnosed disorders as well as those with inherited hematological disorders and children with genetic disorders predisposing to malignancies. He has been Chief of Medical Genetics and Metabolism at MGH since 2011 and was awarded the Lewis and Leslie Holmes Endowed Chair in Genetics and Teratology in 2017. He is Co-Director of the Pitt Hopkins Clinic, MGH Site Director of the Harvard Medical School Genetics Training program, Co-Director of the Harvard Medical School Affiliated Hospitals NORD Rare Disease Center of Excellence and a Primary Investigator in the MGH Center for Cancer Research. Dr. Sweetser is also the MGH site director for the NIH sponsored Undiagnosed Diseases Network linking 11 medical centers around the country to accelerate discovery and innovation in the way we diagnose and treat patients with previously undiagnosed diseases. He has been a leader in the application of genomic sequencing to clinical diagnostics and expanding clinical genomic applications throughout MGH. He has contributed to the discovery of numerous new genetic diseases.

Dr. Sweetser runs a research lab in the Center for Genomic Medicine and MGH Cancer Center investigating several genetic disorders including Pitt Hopkins Syndrome, IQSEC2 -related disorder, CACNA1E epileptic encephalopathy, as well as leukemia. He has systematically generated and characterized patient derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of several inherited monogenic causes of intellectual disability and neurodevelopmental disorders developing phenotypic assays amenable to drug screening to precision targeted therapeutics.

The Feingold Service Staff

Catherine Bearce Nowak, MD

Dr. Nowak has over 30 years of experience caring for children born with rare diseases and physical or intellectual challenges. She is a board-certified clinician in Clinical Genetics (ABMGG). Particular areas of interest include dysmorphic syndromes, cleft lip/palate, overgrowth disorders, autism spectrum disorders and conditions with intellectual disability. She received her medical degree from McGill University and completed residency in Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Dr. Nowak then completed a fellowship in Clinical Genetics at The National Birth Defects Center. After practicing clinical genetics for 8 years at The Feingold Center for Children, Dr. Nowak served as the Chief of the Division of Genetics at UMass-Memorial for four years before returning to The Feingold Center. She also practiced clinical genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital for 11 years.

Dr. Nowak spent much of her career at The Feingold Center for Children, the brainchild of Dr. Murray Feingold, who saw the importance of spending in-depth time with families to truly listen to parents’ concerns and to get to know the whole child rather than focus only on diagnosis. The mission of the Feingold Center was to work collaboratively with families of children with rare disorders to coordinate their multiple specialty appointments and to address issues such as insurance coverage, educational/therapy concerns as well as the social and emotional needs of the entire family. A network of satellite clinics allowed care close to home. After Dr. Feingold passed away and The Feingold Center closed, Dr. Nowak continued this “Feingold Model of Care”. In 2022, Dr. Nowak joined the Division of Genetics and Metabolism as Clinical Director and brought with her The Murray Feingold Coordinated Genetic Service supported by a grant from The Genesis Foundation for Children. She currently sees patients at: Mass General for Children Genetics Program in Boston, Mass General for Children – Waltham, Mass General Satellite in Sandwich, MA. and Mass General Satellite on Nantucket.

Dr. Nowak has been named as a Top Doctor in Boston and has also been recognized as an Exceptional Woman in Medicine. She is the Medical Director of the Mother-to-Baby MA program that educates the public and the medical community about the importance of avoiding potentially harmful exposures during pregnancy. She serves as the medical advisor to The Genesis Foundation for Children.

Dr. Nowak’s professional mission is to improve the lives of her patients and ease the difficulties experienced by parents and caregivers juggling their child’s complex needs.