Dr. Harms' clinical activities focus on the evaluation and treatment of patients with neuromuscular disease, including neuropathy, myopathy, myasthenia gravis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He also participates as an investigator for clinical trials in these diseases, and performs electromyography/nerve conduction studies. Dr. Harms' research focuses on uncovering the genetic causes of hereditary neuromuscular diseases.

Medical Training

Matthew Harms, MD received his B.A. in biology summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1997, where his coursework and thesis focused on the neurosciences. After completing additional neurobiology research at Stanford University, he attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his medical degree and AOA honors in 2003, and remained at UCSF to complete his medicine internship and neurology residency in 2007. Dr. Harms came to Washington University School of Medicine/Barnes Jewish Hospital in 2007 for fellowship training in clinical neurophysiology/neuromuscular medicine and joined the faculty immediately afterward.

Selected Publications

Ng J, Nardine T, Harms M, Tzu J, Goldstein A, Sun Y, Dietzl G, Dickson BJ, Luo L. Rac GTPases control axon growth, guidance and branching. Nature. 2002 Mar 28;416(6879):442-7.

Hakeda-Suzuki S, Ng J, Tzu J, Dietzl G, Sun Y, Harms M, Nardine T, Luo L, Dickson BJ. Rac function and regulation during Drosophila development. Nature. 2002 Mar 28;416(6879):438-42.

Nakayama AY, Harms MB, Luo L. Small GTPases Rac and Rho in the maintenance of dendritic spines and branches in hippocampal pyramidal neurons. J Neurosci. 2000 Jul 15;20(14):5329-38.

Pawlikowska L, Cottrell SE, Harms MB, Li Y, Rosenberg PA. Extracellular synthesis of cADP-ribose from nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide by rat cortical astrocytes in culture. J Neurosci. 1996 Sep 1;16(17):5372-81.