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Dena Matalon, MD

  • Clinical Assistant Professor
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  • Dena Rae Matalon

Locations and Hours

Medical Genetics

730 Welch Rd
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Phone: (650) 723-6858
Fax: (650) 498-4555
Map, Directions & Parking

Stanford Childrens Health Specialty Services - Sunnyvale

1195 West Fremont Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA  94087
Phone: (650) 721-5804
Fax: (650) 498-4555
Map, Directions & Parking

Specialties

Clinical Genetics

Work and Education

Professional Education

Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA, 05/30/2013

Internship

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 06/21/2014

Residency

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 06/30/2016

Fellowship

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 06/30/2017

Board Certifications

Clinical Genetics, American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics

Pediatrics, American Board of Pediatrics

Services

Neurometabolic

Neurogenomics

Genetics

Alagille Syndrome

All Publications

Congenital polyvalvular disease expands the cardiac phenotype of the RASopathies. American journal of medical genetics. Part A Matalon, D. R., Stevenson, D. A., Bhoj, E. J., Santani, A. B., Keena, B. n., Cohen, M. S., Lin, A. E., Sheppard, S. E., Zackai, E. H. 2021

Abstract

The RASopathies are a group of similar genetic syndromes with cardiovascular abnormalities, characteristic facial features, short stature, abnormalities of the skin and musculoskeletal system, and variable neurodevelopmental challenges. The most common cardiovascular abnormalities include pulmonary valvular stenosis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Congenital polyvalvular disease (CPVD) refers to congenital dysplasia of two or more cardiac valves. We diagnosed a RASopathy in two individuals with CPVD and noted that CPVD in RASopathies has rarely been reported in the literature. Thus, we performed a retrospective chart review and literature review to investigate the association and characterize the phenotype of CPVD in the RASopathies. CPVD was present in 2.5% (n =6/243) of individuals in our RASopathy cohort. Involvement of two cardiac valves, commonly the aortic and pulmonic valves, was seen in the majority of individuals (6/8; 75%) in our cohort, but only 27% (3/11) of reported CPVD and RASopathy cases in the literature. CPVD should be considered an associated cardiovascular phenotype of the RASopathies, which has implications for diagnosis and management.

View details for DOI 10.1002/ajmg.a.62146

View details for PubMedID 33683002

Diagnostic journey and impact of enzyme replacement therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis IVA: a sibling control study. Orphanet journal of rare diseases Ficicioglu, C. n., Matalon, D. R., Luongo, N. n., Menello, C. n., Kornafel, T. n., Degnan, A. J. 2020; 15 (1): 336

Abstract

Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) IVA, also known as Morquio A syndrome, is a rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder caused by a deficiency in the enzyme N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfatase. Early recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of this progressive, multisystem disease by enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) can lead to improved outcomes and reduced mortality.This report documents the diagnostic journey and treatment with ERT of three siblings with MPS IVA. Clinical outcome measures included growth, endurance, imaging, cardiac, respiratory, ophthalmology, and laboratory evaluations.Three siblings, diagnosed at 14.7, 10.1, and 3.2years of age, demonstrated clinical improvement with weekly infusions of 2.0mg/kg elosulfase alfa (Vimizim, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Novato, CA, USA). Patient 1 (oldest sibling) and Patient 2 (middle sibling) experienced a diagnostic delay of 8years 7months and 4years after symptom onset, respectively. All three patients demonstrated improvements in growth, 6-min walk distance, joint range of motion, and respiratory function after 30months of ERT. The treatment was well tolerated without any adverse events.This case series highlights the importance of early recognition of the clinical and imaging findings that are initially subtle in MPS IVA. Early treatment with ERT is necessary to slow irreversible disease progression and improve patient outcomes. The oldest sibling experienced improvements in mobility despite severe symptoms resulting from a late diagnosis. When evaluating patients with skeletal anomalies, imaging multiple body regions is recommended. When findings such as anterior beaking of vertebrae or bilateral femoral head dysplasia are present, MPS IVA should be included in the differential diagnosis. Newborn screening must be considered for early detection, accurate diagnosis, and initiation of treatment to reduce morbidity.

View details for DOI 10.1186/s13023-020-01618-y

View details for PubMedID 33256811

De novo variants in SUPT16H cause neurodevelopmental disorders associated with corpus callosum abnormalities. Journal of medical genetics Bina, R. n., Matalon, D. n., Fregeau, B. n., Tarsitano, J. J., Aukrust, I. n., Houge, G. n., Bend, R. n., Warren, H. n., Stevenson, R. E., Stuurman, K. E., Barkovich, A. J., Sherr, E. H. 2020

Abstract

Whole-exome sequencing (WES) has identified de novo variants in chromatin remodelling genes in patients with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). We report on a novel genetic discovery in chromatin remodelling in patients with NDD who also have corpus callosum (CC) anomalies.To discover novel genes linked to both CC anomalies and NDD.Clinical WES was performed for evaluation of NDD, identifying five patients with de novo variants in SUPT16H, a subunit of the FACT (facilitates chromatin transcription) complex. The clinical phenotypes, genetic results and brain MRIs were obtained and systematically reviewed. In silico protein function predictions were assessed and allele frequencies in control populations were compared.We identified four patients with de novo missense variants in SUPT16H and one patient with a de novo deletion including SUPT16H. These variants were not reported in the updated Genome Aggregation Database. When assayable, all protein products were predicted to be damaging. Symptoms included intellectual disability, autistic features, minor dysmorphic features and seizures. Anomalies of the CC were seen in all three patients with available brain imaging.Our findings implicate the gene SUPT16H in a novel disorder characterised by neurodevelopmental deficits and CC anomalies.

View details for DOI 10.1136/jmedgenet-2019-106193

View details for PubMedID 31924697

ClinPhen extracts and prioritizes patient phenotypes directly from medical records to expedite genetic disease diagnosis GENETICS IN MEDICINE Deisseroth, C. A., Birgmeier, J., Bodle, E. E., Kohler, J. N., Matalon, D. R., Nazarenko, Y., Genetti, C. A., Brownstein, C. A., Schmitz-Abe, K., Schoch, K., Cope, H., Signer, R., Network, U., Martinez-Agosto, J. A., Shashi, V., Beggs, A. H., Wheeler, M. T., Bernstein, J. A., Bejerano, G. 2019; 21 (7): 158593

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41436-018-0381-1

View details for Web of Science ID 000473518700017

LOCALIZING NEUROLOGIC FEATURES AT PRESENTATION OF VLCAD DEFICIENCY Leahy, P., Matalon, D., Ruzhnikov, M., Cowan, T., Enns, G. ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE. 2019: 282

View details for Web of Science ID 000483451500104

Paraspinal Atrophy Suggesting Underlying Genetic Etiology Schwartz, D., Fong, J., Matalon, D., Wong, J., Greene, M. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. 2019

View details for Web of Science ID 000475965901365

LOCALIZING NEUROLOGIC FEATURES AT PRESENTATION OF VLCAD DEFICIENCY Leahy, P., Matalon, D., Ruzhnikov, M., Cowan, T., Enns, G. ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE. 2019: 311

View details for Web of Science ID 000463310000117

THE DIAGNOSIS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MUCOPOLYSACCHARIDOSIS IVA IN ONE FAMILY Matalon, D. R., Dougherty, P., Lulis, L., Medne, L., Krantz, I., Yum, S., Ficicioglu, C. ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE. 2018: 24950

View details for Web of Science ID 000428001200108

The diagnosis and natural history of mucopolysaccharidosis type IVA in one family Matalon, D., Dougherty, P., Lulis, L., Medne, L., Krantz, I., Yum, S., Ficicioglu, C. ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE. 2018: S92

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ymgme.2017.12.241

View details for Web of Science ID 000424963800234

ClinPhen extracts and prioritizes patient phenotypes directly from medical records to expedite genetic disease diagnosis. Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics Deisseroth, C. A., Birgmeier, J. n., Bodle, E. E., Kohler, J. N., Matalon, D. R., Nazarenko, Y. n., Genetti, C. A., Brownstein, C. A., Schmitz-Abe, K. n., Schoch, K. n., Cope, H. n., Signer, R. n., Martinez-Agosto, J. A., Shashi, V. n., Beggs, A. H., Wheeler, M. T., Bernstein, J. A., Bejerano, G. n. 2018

Abstract

Diagnosing monogenic diseases facilitates optimal care, but can involve the manual evaluation of hundreds of genetic variants per case. Computational tools like Phrank expedite this process by ranking all candidate genes by their ability to explain the patient's phenotypes. To use these tools, busy clinicians must manually encode patient phenotypes from lengthy clinical notes. With 100 million human genomes estimated to be sequenced by 2025, a fast alternative to manual phenotype extraction from clinical notes will become necessary.We introduce ClinPhen, a fast, high-accuracy tool that automatically converts clinical notes into a prioritized list of patient phenotypes using Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) terms.ClinPhen shows superior accuracy and 20 speedup over existing phenotype extractors, and its novel phenotype prioritization scheme improves the performance of gene-ranking tools.While a dedicated clinician can process 200 patient records in a 40-hour workweek, ClinPhen does the same in 10minutes. Compared with manual phenotype extraction, ClinPhen saves an additional 3-5hours per Mendelian disease diagnosis. Providers can now add ClinPhen's output to each summary note attached to a filled testing laboratory request form. ClinPhen makes a substantial contribution to improvements in efficiency critically needed to meet the surging demand for clinical diagnostic sequencing.

View details for PubMedID 30514889