About the Speakers

Michelle Gray, PhD
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Dr. Michelle Gray is an Associate Professor in Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Her laboratory is supported by grants from NIH/NINDS and the Hereditary Disease foundation. She uses a mouse model that that she developed in the lab of Dr. William Yang during her postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles to understand the contribution of specific cell types to the pathogen edits of Huntington’s disease. Although she has a new interest in the role of mHTT in the cardiovascular abnormalities in HD, her laboratory has been primarily focused on non-neuronal cells in the brain, specifically astrocytes and their contribution to HD pathogenesis.

Ryan Lim, PhD
University of California, Irvine

Dr. Ryan Lim is the Director of Biology at Modulo Bio, Inc., and works with the lab of Dr. Leslie Thompson at the University of California, Irvine as a member of the NeuroLINCS and AnswerALS consortia. He has 10+ years of experience studying neurological disorders using patient-derived stem cells and mouse models and established the first induced pluripotent stem cell-derived Blood-Brain Barrier model of neurodegeneration, which was Huntington's disease. He was at the forefront of using single cell technologies and has expertise in genomics and systems/computational biology applications, and has research awards from CIRM, American Heart Association, Hereditary Disease Foundation, and the NIH.

Ricardo Mouro Pinto, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Dr. Ricardo Mouro Pinto is an Instructor in Neurology at the Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is an applied human geneticist and neuroscientist with a strong interest in unstable microsatellite-associated neurodegenerative disorders, such as Huntington's disease and Friedreich Ataxia. A major focus of his Lab has been the characterization of the mechanisms responsible for DNA repeat instability in the context of such diseases and as potential therapeutic targets. Dr. Mouro Pinto is the inaugural recipient of HDSA's Berman-Topper HD Career Development Fellowship.

Sarah Hernandez, PhD, Director of Research Programs
Hereditary Disease Foundation

Dr. Sarah Hernandez oversees the Foundation’s scientific research portfolio and works closely with its Scientific Advisory Board to identify the most promising research. 

Dr. Hernandez learned at a young age that her family was affected by Huntington's disease, motivating her to learn more and inspiring her to become a scientist. In 2015, she received a PhD in Biology and Biotechnology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. For her postdoctoral studies, she joined the lab of renowned Huntington’s disease scientist Leslie Thompson, PhD, at the University of California, Irvine and Chair-Elect, HDF Scientific Advisory Board. There she worked on understanding the molecular consequences of Huntington’s disease to cells of the brain using stem cells and fruit flies. In 2021, she was honored as the recipient of the Hereditary Disease Foundation Nancy S. Wexler Young Investigator Prize, presented to a researcher whose work represents the highest caliber of excellence, diligence, and creative thinking. Additionally, Sarah is an editor for HDBuzz, writing articles about Huntington’s disease-related science and research news in plain language for the patient community.