Research

Overview of the Research Program of the Sickle Cell Center:

The Center for Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease has an active basic science, clinical and translational research program devoted to increasing understanding of disease pathogenesis, the clinical epidemiology of complications of the disease and defining new treatments for patients.

Current research initiatives in the adult program of the center:

• Using genomic technologies to identify biomarker signatures of Sickle Cell Disease severity
• Understanding mechanisms of inducing fetal hemoglobin expression in Human adult and cord blood erythroblasts and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC).
• iPSC-based mapping of globin expression throughout human erythropoietic development
• Targeting LSD1 as a method to Induce fetal hemoglobin expression
• Understanding the epidemiology of sleep-disordered breathing in sickle cell disease and its impact on endothelial function and cardiopulmonary outcomes
• Understanding the clinical outcomes of venous thromboembolism in SCD and the role of thromboses as a pulmonary vascular modulator
• Evaluating the effectiveness of pulmonary arterial hypertension therapies in pulmonary hypertension of sickle cell disease
• Phase I, II, and III clinical trials of novel therapeutic agents