By Grace Da Rocha (contact)
Saturday, March 8, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Doctor Mark Eugene Nunes
Dr. Mark Nunes, a family geneticist who treats those at risk for genetic disorders or cancers, feels right at home in his new position in Las Vegas.
Nunes, who recently joined Cure 4 The Kids Foundation and is believed to be the first full-time geneticist in Nevada, will fill a void in the local medical community, his colleagues said.
“This is truly a game-changer for our community,” said Annette Logan-Parker, founder and chief innovation and advocacy officer at the foundation. “The rapidly advancing fields of genetics and genomics offer remarkable insights that will enhance our ability to provide individualized care for our pediatric and adult patients.”
Nunes’ more than two decades in the profession have taken him to Washington, Virginia, Ohio and California — where he most recently served as director of medical genetics and metabolism at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera, Calif., overseeing state-sponsored prenatal genetic clinics and the creation of specialized multidisciplinary clinics focused on the genetic causes of cardiovascular and neurological conditions.
He is bringing that expertise here.
“(Genetics) is a fantastic specialty,” Nunes said. “It’s a little bit psychiatric; it’s a little bit interpreting weird genetic language into something that families and patients are able to understand; it’s a little bit of social work; it’s a little bit of cutting-edge therapy and treatment and being aware of what the new developments are.”
Nunes said he would help families, children and adults with genetic disorders who were previously forced to travel out of state for medical diagnosis and treatment services.
There are over 7,000 known rare diseases, which are defined as conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States, according to the Nevada Rare Disease Advisory Council. An estimated 25 million to 30 million Americans live with a rare disease, with around 50% of them being children who could later experience challenges in diagnosis, treatment and quality of life for themselves and their families.
In Nevada, there’s no readily available data on the prevalence of rare diseases, but the Nevada Rare Disease Advisory Council has begun efforts to gather in-state data on these conditions.
Cure 4 the Kids Foundation — headquartered in Las Vegas on the Roseman University of Health Sciences campus — was founded in 2007 as a nonprofit health care facility treating and studying children with cancers and rare diseases.
The Nevada Rare Disease Advisory Council said treatment for rare diseases “can impose a substantial financial burden on individuals, families and health care systems,” creating a barrier for people to even receive care.
Dr. Joseph Lasky III, a medical director at Cure 4 the Kids, explained that the foundation had already been serving and caring for patients with genetic disorders when he started working with the organization in 2017. But there was never an in-house geneticist to guide patients on the management of their disease.
One family that Lasky is caring for frequently traveled from Las Vegas to Los Angeles for diagnostic testing and spinal tap treatments on their three sons, who live with Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a rare progressive genetic disorder where the body cannot transport cholesterol and other fatty substances inside of cells.
Before hiring Nunes, the organization was regularly relying on Dr. Nicola Longo from Utah, who still makes appearances at Cure 4 the Kids Foundation.
The waitlist for families seeking guidance on treatment from Longo soon went from six months to a year, and it’s been “continuously growing” ever since, Lasky said.
The waitlist wasn’t serving the community well, Cure 4 the Kids reasoned, and that became one of the main drivers for hiring an in-house family geneticist.
“With Dr. Nunes part of the Cure 4 the Kids Foundation team, these services are finally accessible to Nevadans on a full-time basis,” Logan-Parker said. “This is a significant win not only for our patients but also for the health care landscape of Nevada.”
Nunes hopes to embed himself within the medical community in the state, he said. In a constantly advancing field like genetics, having a group to discuss advancements, patient care and other important topics is crucial for learning.
Connecting the genetics community in Nevada could bring even more advancements to the field, allowing the state to “leapfrog” in medical infrastructure to treat those with rare conditions, he added.
Nunes wants to implement strategies for reaching patients in rural areas, and push for the licensure of genetic counselors — health care professionals who use family history to assess an individual’s risk for inherited conditions.
Lasky and Logan-Parker are confident that Nunes’ presence here will not only be a boon for Cure 4 the Kids Foundation and its patients, but the state as a whole.
“Since the population has really exploded here, we’re just simply getting more families and bigger communities here all the time, and so the need is that much greater,” Lasky said. “Having Nunes here now is just gonna make communication and the care of these families just so much better. He’s very passionate for the care of both children and adults with these diseases, and I think it totally fits with our mission to provide the best care for these families.”
