Dr. Blanca Himes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Himes is also affiliated with the Graduate Group in Genomics and Computational Biology. As a computational scientist, Dr. Himes’ research interests focus on using biomedical informatics approaches to better understand complex respiratory diseases such as asthma. Among the on-going projects in the Himes lab include understanding the function of disease-associated genes by altering cell-specific transcriptomes, integrating diverse genomic datasets to model cellular transcriptome changes involved in disease, and using geospatial demographic and environmental data to better understand factors that contribute to asthma prevalence and exacerbation. In addition to research, Dr. Himes is active in mentoring students, and she blogs occasionally to address topics posed by young students such as career advice, personal motivation for doing research, and parenthood. Dr. Himes’ research potential and leadership skills have been recognized with the UCSD Sang-keng Ma Memorial Award (2001) and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology Student Leadership Award (2007).
Recent Publications
- Gleeson, PK, Morales, KH, Hvisdas, C, LaCava, AF, Harhay, MO, Rank, MA, Apter, AJ, Himes, BE. Factors Associated With Asthma Biologic Prescribing and Primary Adherence among Adults in a Large Health System. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2023; : . PubMed PMID:36907354 .
- Panganiban, RAM, Yang, Z, Sun, M, Park, CY, Kasahara, DI, Schaible, N, Krishnan, R, Kho, AT, Israel, E, Hershenson, MB et al.. Antagonizing cholecystokinin A receptor in the lung attenuates obesity-induced airway hyperresponsiveness. Nat Commun 2023; 14 (1): 47. PubMed PMID:36599824 PubMed Central PMC9813361.
- Johnson, C, Schiffenbauer, AI, Miller, FW, Perin, J, Danoff, SK, Diwadkar, AR, Joo, J, Himes, BE, Meyer, NJ, Myositis-ILD Study Group et al.. Human Leukocyte Antigen Alleles Associated with Interstitial Lung Disease in North Americans with Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathy. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2023; 207 (5): 619-622. PubMed PMID:36269757 .
- Kan, M, Sun, M, Jiang, X, Diwadkar, AR, Parikh, V, Cao, G, Gebski, E, Jester, W, Lan, B, Panettieri, RA Jr et al.. CEBPD modulates the airway smooth muscle transcriptomic response to glucocorticoids. Respir Res 2022; 23 (1): 193. PubMed PMID:35902923 PubMed Central PMC9331514.
- Joo, J, Mak, ACY, Xiao, S, Sleiman, PM, Hu, D, Huntsman, S, Eng, C, Kan, M, Diwakar, AR, Lasky-Su, JA et al.. Genome-wide association study in minority children with asthma implicates DNAH5 in bronchodilator responsiveness. Sci Rep 2022; 12 (1): 12514. PubMed PMID:35869121 PubMed Central PMC9307508.
- Kan, M, Diwadkar, AR, Saxena, S, Shuai, H, Joo, J, Himes, BE. REALGAR: a web app of integrated respiratory omics data. Bioinformatics 2022; 38 (18): 4442-4445. PubMed PMID:35863045 PubMed Central PMC9477519.
- Rizaldi, AA, Xie, S, Hubbard, RA, Himes, BE. Neighborhood Characteristics and COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality in Southeastern Pennsylvania. AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2022; 2022 : 422-431. PubMed PMID:35854746 PubMed Central PMC9285166.
- Wang, D, Ho, ES, Cotticelli, MG, Xu, P, Napierala, JS, Hauser, LA, Napierala, M, Himes, BE, Wilson, RB, Lynch, DR et al.. Skin fibroblast metabolomic profiling reveals that lipid dysfunction predicts the severity of Friedreich's ataxia. J Lipid Res 2022; 63 (9): 100255. PubMed PMID:35850241 PubMed Central PMC9399481.
- Deeney, BT, Cao, G, Orfanos, S, Lee, J, Kan, M, Himes, BE, Parikh, V, Koziol-White, CJ, An, SS, Panettieri, RA Jr et al.. Epinephrine evokes shortening of human airway smooth muscle cells following β2 adrenergic receptor desensitization. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2022; 323 (2): L142-L151. PubMed PMID:35787178 PubMed Central PMC9359643.
- Christie, C, Xie, S, Diwadkar, AR, Greenblatt, RE, Rizaldi, A, Himes, BE. Consolidated Environmental and Social Data Facilitates Neighborhood-Level Health Studies in Philadelphia. AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2021; 2021 : 305-313. PubMed PMID:35308932 PubMed Central PMC8861730.
