Charles Jourdan Reyes

Featured on July 24, 2022

Charles is a joint postdoctoral research fellow at the Collaborative Center for X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism (CCXDP) and the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MIND) at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

He currently investigates the molecular causes of neuronal death in X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism (XDP), a uniquely Filipino disease endemic to his father’s hometown, the Panay Island of the Philippines.

Charles graduated program awardee and magna cum laude with a BS in Biology and a Minor in History from the Ateneo de Manila University.

Then, with the support of a research scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), he finished his Master of Medical Science, focusing on RNA Biology and Neuroscience, at Osaka University Medical School.

He obtained his Ph.D. in Biomedicine, specializing in Neurogenetics, at the University of Lübeck in Germany through a Katholischer Akademischer Ausländer-Dienst (KAAD) scholarship.

Outside of his research work, Charles actively promotes neuroscience awareness in the Philippines through the Society for Pinoy Neuroscience Enthusiasts.

He also mentors aspiring Filipino scientists to get graduate scholarships overseas through the non-profit organization, GradMAP.

He aspires to be a key researcher and educator in the biomedical sciences and contribute to developing cures for neurodegenerative diseases.

Some fun facts about Charles:

1. Over the last eight years, he has worked and trained in four different countries – Japan, Germany, the Philippines, and the USA.
2. His fascination with neuroscience started with the Resident Evil game series. He will probably be the most overprepared guy for a zombie apocalypse.  
3. Charles is a big movie buff, and his favorite directors are Christopher Nolan, Matt Reeves, and David Fincher.