Michelle Hastings

Michelle L. Hastings, PhD, is the Pfizer Upjohn Research Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan Medical school and Director of the M-RNA Therapeutics at the University of Michigan. Before joining University of Michigan, she was Professor and Director of the Center for Genetic Diseases at the Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Dr. Hastings received her PhD from Marquette University and trained as a post-doctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Her research focuses on understanding the genetic basis of disease and discovering new therapeutics that modulate RNA processing to alter gene expression. Her work has resulted in the discovery of effective means of targeting RNA splicing with antisense molecules for the treatment of disease. Dr. Hastings’ studies on Usher syndrome led to the first demonstration that hearing and balance can be recovered in a genetic mouse model of human deafness, laying the groundwork for developing a treatment for Usher in humans. Her recent work has demonstrated that antisense technology can partially correct gene expression in some forms of CLN3 Batten disease, cystic fibrosis and other diseases. Her research has been spotlighted in BBC, USA Today, National Public Radio (NPR) and other news outlets. Dr. Hastings holds numerous patents for her discoveries and is working to develop these technologies into treatments for disease. She is supported by the National Institutes of Health and private foundation grants. She is on the editorial board of Nucleic Acids Research, RNA and the Journal of Neurochemistry and on the scientific advisory boards of a number of companies. Dr. Hastings is a 2022 National Academy of Sciences Kavli fellow and an inaugural board member of the Society for RNA Therapeutics.