Dr. Harms received his A.B. in Biology summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1997, and his medical doctorate from the University of California San Francisco in 2003. He remained at San Francisco for neurology residency and served as Chief Resident in his final year. Dr. Harms completed neuromuscular medicine and clinical neurophysiology fellowships under the mentorship of Dr. Alan Pestronk at Washington University in St. Louis. His clinical training in neuromuscular diseases led him into the laboratory of Dr. Robert Baloh, where his post-doctoral research identified the genes responsible for two orphan human diseases- dominant spinal muscular atrophy with lower extremity predominance and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 1D.