About Dr. Heather Gray-Edwards, DVM, PhD

Principal Investigator

Heather.GrayEdwards@umassmed.edu

Heather Gray-Edwards is assistant professor of radiology at UMass Chan and a member of the Horae Gene Therapy Center. She obtained her DVM from Auburn University as well as a PhD in biomedical sciences. Her research interests involve the use of animal models to enhance understanding of disease progression in order to develop and test novel therapeutics to cure disease. Her research focus has been to develop noninvasive MRI-based methods to examine disease progression of neurodegenerative disorders in large animal models, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene therapy.

A large part of her research effort has been devoted to evaluation of therapeutic interventions in testing novel AAV vectors and delivery routes, using both biochemical/molecular biology techniques as well as in vivo evaluation (neuro exams, MRI/MRS, electrodiagnostics) of GM1 and GM2 cats as well as sheep with Tay-Sachs disease. Dr. Gray-Edwards has significant experience in MRI based brain evaluation and has established the use of MR spectroscopy to identify physiologic and pathologic metabolites in the gangliosidosis brain.