Barry Byrne is the UF associate chair of the Department of Pediatrics and director of the UF Powell Center for Rare Disease Research. Byrne is a clinician scientist who is studying a variety of rare diseases with specific attention to developing therapies for inherited muscle disease. As a pediatric cardiologist, his focus is on conditions that lead to skeletal muscle weakness and problems in heart and respiratory function. His research team has been developing new therapies using a missing cellular protein or the corrective gene to restore muscle function in Pompe and other inherited myopathies. Byrne co-leads the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Rare Disease Team and serves on the OneFlorida Steering Committee. As co-leader of the DMD Rare Disease Team, he works in collaboration with Krista Vandenborne, PT, Ph.D., on the development of computable phenotypes. He also collaborates with DuchenneConnect and the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Data Network (PMS-DN), both of which are PCORI Patient Powered Research Networks. Finally, he serves as a liaison to industry representatives focused on rare disease, including Solid Ventures.