Blanca E. Himes, PhD, ATSF, FAMIA

Dr. Himes’ work focuses on using biomedical informatics approaches to study asthma and other complex traits. Dr. Himes began asthma genetics and pharmacogenetics research by participating in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) as a lead investigator and as part of large collaborations. Although promising loci were identified via these studies, she realized that translation of findings into insights that would have an impact on understanding disease pathophysiology was a difficult challenge that required novel research strategies. She has addressed this challenge by leveraging her background in biomedical informatics to generate novel omics datasets and to integrate novel and publicly available omics datasets using creative approaches. Specifically, Dr. Himes’ lab has studied asthma and response to beta-agonists and glucocorticoids, commonly used asthma drugs, by obtaining and integrating omics-level (genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, metabolomics) data corresponding to in vitro and human studies.

Her lab also uses Electronic Health Records (EHR)-derived data to understand characteristics of real-life populations with asthma and COPD, incorporating social, economic, and environmental factor data obtained from secondary sources. Such data is helpful to address health disparities that are not easily characterized using traditional approaches. She has been the Director of the Exposure Biology Informatics Core (EBIC) of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) at the University of Pennsylvania P30 EHSCC since November 2021, and also serves as PI of the Translational Research Training Program in Environmental Health Sciences T32, whose goals and infrastructure are complementary to those of the CEET.