CHARIS L. HIMEDA, PhD

​

Dr. Charis Himeda is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. She has worked in the fields of myogenesis and muscle disease since 1998. In the early stages of her career, she identified novel transcriptional regulators of muscle genes and helped design improved AAV regulatory cassettes which have been widely used in studies of muscle gene therapy. 

 

More recently, she has identified novel drug targets in FSHD and the enhancers that regulate DUX4 gene expression.  She developed the CRISPR inhibition approach for FSHD, designing an FSHD-optimized regulatory cassette and engineering novel therapeutic cassettes that epigenetically repress DUX4. 

 

For her CRISPR work, she received the inaugural FSH Society Young Investigator award in 2016, and she was interviewed by The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Boston Business Journal, and FSH Society Talk Radio. 

 

Dr. Himeda has been a consultant for biotechnology companies developing neuromuscular therapeutics and is an inventor on two patents. 

 

She is also deeply committed to educating the public about FSHD and gene editing, speaking at patient meetings and fundraisers, conducting webinars, and contributing articles to newsletters for patients and their families.

 

 

​

 

​

​

​

​