This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
The illnesses of two family members pushed Charis Gehret ’01 to pursue tough goals and attain them. When her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease during her first year in college, Gehret became interested in neurodegenerative disease research.
A psychology graduate, she works at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Day Neuromuscular Lab, researching amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“We have a transgenic animal model that expresses a phenotype identical to what is found in human ALS patients,” Gehret explains. “With this model we test how different drugs, genetic alterations, and stem cell studies affect the disease.”
Another goal was to run a marathon, and she’d been thinking about it since high school. “When my grandmother had a stroke, I promised her I wouldn’t put anything off anymore. I don’t know if she heard me,” says Gehret. “I began training after graduation, and I ran the Washington Marathon in March, in memory of my grandmother.” She finished the race in three hours, 50 minutes, and has continued training and competing in shorter races every few weeks. She hopes to enter the Philadelphia Marathon in November.
Gehret is still considering whether to go into nutrition and health or to study neurology. In the meantime, “I’m taking additional undergraduate science classes.” She’s also studying to be certified as a personal trainer and taking hip-hop dance classes. “I auditioned as a dancer for a Public Enemy video,” she says. “I didn’t get the job, but it was fun.”
Charis Gehret ’01