Dr. Reghan Foley is a Senior Research Physician within the Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, Neurogenetics Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland.

She has received a Fulbright Scholar Award to pursue a collaborative biomarker discovery project at INFANT using samples collected at the NIH in infants and young children with COL6 or LAMA2-related congenital muscular dystrophies and control samples from the INFANT biobank. Dr. Foley is working with Professor Deirdre Murray of INFANT to examine miRNA profiles and Dr. Jane English of INFANT and the Department of Neuroscience and Anatomy to study proteomic profiles of patients and healthy control samples from the Cork BASELINE Birth Cohort.

Dr. Foley and her colleagues at the NIH have led international efforts to improve clinical trial readiness for children with congenital muscle diseases via various natural history studies. Given promising therapeutic approaches currently in development for COL6 and LAMA2-related congenital muscular dystrophies, there is an essential need for identifying and validating biomarkers capable of reflecting potential therapeutic change, as such biomarkers could increase the chance of success of upcoming clinical trials.

At the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Foley sees patients with congenital onset neuromuscular diseases who remain genetically undiagnosed and follows children diagnosed with rare congenital onset neuromuscular diseases via various natural history studies. She has served as the lead associate investigator for her section’s Phase 1 clinical trial in COL6-related dystrophy and LAMA2-related dystrophy, a Phase 1 gene therapy trial in MTM1-related myopathy, and as an associate investigator for a Phase 1 gene therapy trial in giant axonal neuropathy.

Career Profile:

2020; Senior Research Physician, Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, Neurogenetics Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland

2018 – 2020; Staff Clinician 2, Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, Neurogenetics Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland

2015 – 2018; Staff Clinician 1, Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, Neurogenetics Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland

2013 – 2014; Locum Consultant Neurologist, Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin

2010 – 2012; Clinical Research Fellow in Paediatric Neuromuscular Diseases, Dubowitz / Neuromuscular Centre, University College London Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London

2008 – 2009; Fellow in Pediatric Neuromuscular Diseases, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2005 – 2008; Fellow in Child Neurology, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and The Hospital of  the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2003 – 2005; Resident in Pediatrics, Miami Children’s Hospital, Miami, Florida

Education Profile:

2013                    MD(Res) – University College London Institute of Child Health, London                                 

2003                    MD – Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC

1998                    BSLA – Georgetown University College of Arts and Sciences, Washington, DC