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Medical lab test
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Research Feature
“Look at that! Life!” said Deidra Flowers-Williams , a sickle cell disease patient, as she held up a tube with stem cells donated by her sister, Tanisha Flowers. It was just minutes before doctors at the NIH Clinical Center would use the cells – extracted from her sister’s bone marrow – for a transplant they hoped would cure the devastating blood...
Technician operates Gazelle platform, a portable lab-on-a-chip device that can identify sickle cell disease from a blood droplet. Photo source: Hemex Health
Credit: Hemex Health
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Research Feature
About 20 years ago, researchers excitedly announced the coming of so-called lab-on-chip devices that could revolutionize medicine. At the time, people marveled at the possibilities: The devices would take the capabilities of a large biochemistry lab and shrink them to a platform the size of a cell phone or smaller. With help from a portable scanner...
A physician talks to a young patient in a medical exam room.
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Research Feature
At St. Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri, a 12-year-old boy waiting in an exam room held a tablet as he scrolled through a trivia game about sickle cell disease (SCD) – an inherited blood disorder that had brought him to the hospital for a regular visit. As he played the game, he won a badge each time he answered a question right. But happily...
 Sickle cell anemia disease (SCD) blood cells 3D illustration
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News Release
Finding could lead to new ways to reduce complications from painful red blood cell disorder Researchers have discovered that DNA from the mitochondria - the cell’s “powerhouses” - acts as a danger signal in the body and triggers inflammation in people with sickle cell disease. A better understanding of mitochondrial DNA, long known to circulate in...
This photo shows a technician use a scanner device to take temperature of man wearing mask in assessment for COVID-19.
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Research Feature
The coronavirus pandemic has caused tragedy and turmoil for millions of people around the world, but it has been particularly unkind to one group whose health journey is often overlooked: Those with sickle cell disease. A growing number of studies now suggest that people with this painful genetic blood disorder who also are infected with SARS-CoV-2...
An example of what the InCharge Health app would look like on a smartphone.
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Research Feature
A new smartphone app could be a boon for adolescents, young adults When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug hydroxyurea to help reduce the excruciating pain suffered by people with sickle cell disease, the health care community was hopeful. The year was 1998, and the prospect of a drug that could offer significant relief from...
Close-up hand's doctor or nurses are vaccination to patient using the syringe injected upper arm for treated
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Research Feature
Multi-institute NIH study suggests that the HPV vaccine could protect women against new HPV infections after stem cell transplantation The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine provides a safe, robust immune response against HPV in reproductive-aged women who have had a stem cell transplant. The results from the small study published in the Journal of...
image of bags of blood.
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News Release
Fresh red blood cell transfusions do not help critically ill children more than older cells NIH-funded finding may alter policies at hospitals where fresh red cells are preferentially used Researchers have found that transfusions using fresh red blood cells—cells that have spent seven days or less in storage—are no more beneficial than older red...
About 1 in every 16,300 Hispanic babies is born with sickle cell disease
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Research Feature
En el 2000, Mercy Mendoza, a los 3 años, languidecía con una enfermedad misteriosa. Su abuela, desesperanzada, compró un sitio donde enterrarla en el pueblito de Honduras donde vivían. La hinchazón, el dolor y la inmovilidad estaban erosionando rápidamente su salud. Finalmente, un médico que había estudiado en los Estados Unidos reconoció su...
About 1 in every 16,300 Hispanic babies is born with sickle cell disease.
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Research Feature
In 2000, a mysterious disease was making 3-year-old Mercy Mendoza so ill that her grandmother bought a burial plot for her in the little town in Honduras where they lived. Swelling, pain, and immobility were fast eroding her health. Finally, a doctor who had been trained in the United States recognized her condition: It was sickle cell disease, an...
Photograph of Jennelle Stephenson work with a nurse at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.
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Research Feature
When CBS’s 60 Minutes aired the compelling story of a Florida woman whose severe sickle cell disease symptoms were alleviated with a cutting edge gene therapy technique, people listened. A lot of them. The treatment happened at the National Institutes of Health, and since the showcasing of its dramatic success, NIH has been responding to scores of...
Dr. Oyebola in the lab.
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Research Feature
A conversation with Dr. Kolapo Oyebola It is not lost on Kolapo Oyebola, Ph.D., that half the sickle cell disease cases worldwide can be found in his native Nigeria. This tragic fact, said the National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellow, has long been top of mind—and he is bent on doing something about it. Something big. He wants to...
Newborn blood spot (heel prick) test (the Guthrie' test). A physician performing the pinprick puncture in one heel of a newborn to collect their blood to screen for inborn errors of metabolism.
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Research Feature
Soon after birth, a baby in the United States is tested for sickle cell disease, the often-devastating genetic blood disorder affecting more than 100,000 Americans and 20 million of people worldwide. If positive, that newborn typically begins a course of treatment that can greatly prolong life and help stave off complications of the disease. But in...
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Media Availability
WHAT: A scientist from the National Institutes of Health will present promising, early results from a human clinical trial testing a novel gene replacement therapy in people with severe sickle cell disease. Preliminary findings suggest that the approach has an acceptable level of safety and might help patients consistently produce normal red blood...
Microscopic image of sickle cell
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Research Features
More than 100,000 people in the United States and an estimated 20 million worldwide suffer from sickle cell disease, a group of inherited, often life-threatening blood disorders that wreak havoc on the body. Mainly affecting African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians, the disease is caused by a [embed type:node embed_type:glossary_term id:84178 plural...
Cure Sickle Cell.
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Research Feature
When the NHLBI announced the launch of the Cure Sickle Cell Initiative on September 13, many in the sickle cell disease community responded with enthusiasm. Patients, family members, and advocates took to social media and other channels to say they are ready to do their part, starting with spreading the news about the initiative to their neighbors...