Dr. Hastings is the Pfizer Upjohn Research Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan Medical School, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy and Director of the RNA Therapeutics Design and Synthesis Hub at the University. Dr. Hastings received a B.A. from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. in Biology from Marquette University. She was a post-doctoral fellow and then senior fellow with Dr. Adrian Krainer at Cold Spring Harbor Lab and then. joined the faculty at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science where she went on to become Professor and Director of the Center for Genetic Diseases. In 2023, she moved to her current position at the University of Michigan. Dr. Hastings’ research aims to understand the basic mechanisms of RNA processing and use this information to devise RNA-based strategies to treat disease. A major focus of the lab is on therapeutically modulating gene expression by targeting RNA with antisense oligonucleotides. Her work has resulted in the discovery of new treatment approaches for diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Usher syndrome, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Batten disease and others. She is committed to translating these discoveries to the clinic and she recently developed an ASO medicine, Zebronkysen, that is being used to treat an ultra-rare cause of CLN3 Batten disease. Her work is supported by federal and private funding sources. Dr. Hastings is an Editor of the journal, RNA, serves on numerous editorial and scientific advisory boards and is dedicated to the advancement of science through work with scientific societies. Dr. Hastings is passionate about education and training and dedicated to fair and equitable representation.