Host: Chuck Murry

Dr. Hichem Tasfaout is an Assistant Professor in the Neurology Department of the University of Washington (Seattle, WA). His research interests focus on developing novel therapeutic strategies to treat neuromuscular disorders. During his PhD training at the IGBMC Institute (Strasbourg, France), Dr. Tasfaout developed two therapeutic approaches to reduce dynamin2 levels in centronuclear myopathies. His PhD work led to the creation of Dynacure, a biotech company that he co-founded. He then joined the laboratory of Professor Jeff Chamberlain at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA), where he developed a novel gene therapy method that combines split inteins and myotropic vectors. Using this approach, multiple protein fragments are delivered specifically to striated muscles using potent myotropic adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors. Upon their expression, these fragments are then joined into highly functional proteins. In collaboration with Kinea Bio, Dr. Tasfaout’s group is investigating the potential of this novel method to deliver large and challenging proteins involved in different neuromuscular disorders.