Weiyi Mu, ScM

Weiyi Mu is a genetic counselor at the Department of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.  She received her Master of Science in Genetic Counseling from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Her primary work is to provide genetic counseling services for patients in the Ataxia Center, Huntington Disease Center, Neurodegenerative, Dementia & Movement Disorders Genetic Counseling Clinics. Patient and family situations she has expertise in clinical genetic evaluation include but are not limited to:

• Dementia (early-onset Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal dementia, prion disease)
• Movement disorder (Parkinson disease, atypical parkinsonism, dystonia, PSP)
• Ataxia
• Huntington disease
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Other complex neurodegenerative disorders of unknown etiology
• Family history of dementia (Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal dementia, prion disease)
• Family history of movement disorder (Parkinson disease, ataxia)

She also provides short-term and supportive therapeutic genetic counseling sessions for the following situations

• Patients needing assistance with sharing genetic testing results with family members
• Patients having a difficult time adapting to a lifelong, progressive genetic diagnosis 
• Patients concerned about risk for a hereditary illness
• Other stressful life situations surrounding neurodegenerative genetic disorders

Research expertise includes illness and risk perception, genetic testing guidelines for neurodegenerative disorder, characterizing the spectrum of rare neurological genetic disorders. Recent work has evaluated the psychological and quality of life impact on individuals diagnosed with various genetic disorders, including evaluating their family communication patterns, responses to uncertain results from clinical genetic testing, and effects of stigma and illness representation on coping and adaptation. Among key scientific contributions include describing the high diagnostic yield and clinical utility of exome sequencing in neurogenetics and epilepsy disorders, developing and evaluating a comprehensive genetic testing algorithm for ataxia disorders, and achieving international expert consensus on guidelines for psychiatric genetic testing.

Additionally, she is involved in graduate-level and post-graduate level education of medical students, medical residents and fellows, and genetic counseling students at the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, and affiliated institutions. She also founded and coordinates the Johns Hopkins University Summer Undergraduate Virtual Internship in Genetic Counseling

Weiyi is a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors and the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics.

Appointment information:

• Genetic Counseling appointments - 410-955-3071
• Huntington Disease Center evaluations - 410-955-2398
• Ataxia Center Center evaluations - 410-502-0133