Peter L. Jones, PhD, is the Mick Hitchcock, PhD, Endowed Chair of Medical Biochemistry and a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine in the USA. Dr Jones has a BA in microbiology from Miami University and a PhD in molecular genetics from Emory University School of Medicine. He went on to do his postdoctoral work with Dr Alan Wolffe at the National Institutes of Health working on epigenetics and DNA methylation. In 2002, as a new assistant professor at the University of Illinois, a recently diagnosed FSHD patient introduced him to the disease and they started a research project investigating FSHD epigenetics. Now, together with his wife and co-PI, Dr Takako Jones, a developmental biologist by training, they run an academic research laboratory singularly focused on FSHD. They have invented an accurate, affordable and accessible FSHD epigenetic diagnostic method using saliva, created new FSHD cell and animal models (mice and minipigs) for FSHD therapeutic development and preclinical testing, identified FSHD biomarkers of disease progression, and are developing novel FSHD therapeutic approaches including CRISPR-inhibition for FSHD and small molecule drugs to shut down DUX4 expression. In 2019, the Drs Jones founded MyFSHD, a nonprofit that brings their FSHD diagnostic research testing to potential FSHD patients and families around the world at no cost and recently they co-founded Renogenyx, Inc, a company focused on bringing FSHD therapeutics to patients.
