St. Jude has been committed to treating and curing sickle cell disease since its opening in 1962.
From birth to adulthood, we help patients live with sickle cell disease, while we continue to research new cures and better long-term care.
Sickle Cell Disease and Related Genetic Conditions
About 100,000 people in the U.S. have sickle cell disease, an inherited disorder that results in red blood cells becoming hard and sickle-shaped. The shape disrupts the normal flow of blood in the body, which can cause painful and sometimes life-threatening side effects. Learn more about the different genetic conditions related to sickle cell disease:
Sickle Cell Disease in the Clinic
Doctors and researchers work together to learn how to best treat children and manage their sickle cell disease, including sickle cell anemia and other disorders.
Bridging the gap between treatment and research, St. Jude scientists are conducting a study to help uncover insights into the long-term effects of sickle cell disease, including sickle cell anemia and other disorders. In addition, St. Jude will sequence the genomes of 1,000 children with sickle cell disease to understand why some patients experience more severe symptoms.
Latest Sickle Cell Developments
St. Jude has been instrumental in developing recent initiatives to improve the care of patients and advance research in sickle cell disease.
Methodist Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center
To help expand research and clinical care for adult sickle cell disease patients in Memphis, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has formed a collaboration with Methodist Healthcare. This agreement will help develop new infrastructures to strengthen clinical research, generate new therapies and provide the best possible care for adult sickle cell patients, many of whom have received care as pediatric patients at St. Jude.
Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Program
National Institutes of Health funding will allow physicians and researchers to help sickle cell patients in Memphis and surrounding communities improve access and adherence to hydroxyurea treatment. This program, announced in 2016, comprises a team from St. Jude, the University of Memphis, Methodist University Hospital, Baptist Memorial Hospital, Vanderbilt University and the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee. These institutions will jointly develop, assess and integrate mobile health application to manage hydroxyurea treatments in the patient community.
The Sickle Cell Disease Portal offers robust genomic and clinical data from cohorts of individuals with sickle cell disease. This data, offered on St. Jude Cloud, is easily and securely available to academic researchers. Genetic modifiers strongly influence outcomes in sickle cell disease. The goal of the Sickle Cell Disease Portal is to promote global collaborative efforts to understand the genetic underpinnings of the disease and develop better therapies.
Sickle Cell Data Available for Researchers
Sickle Cell Disease in the Lab
In the lab, St. Jude scientists have successfully used CRISPR gene editing to fix blood cells isolated from patients with sickle cell disease. In sickle cell patients, abnormal adult hemoglobin causes red blood cells to become hard and sickle shaped.
By editing the genome of the blood-forming cells with this innovative technique, researchers prompted the production of healthy fetal hemoglobin in a way that mimicked a harmless condition called hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH). Sickle cell patients with this condition tend to have less severe symptoms. The next step for researchers will be to look for the safest and most effective way to use this method in patients.
Meet Our Patients
Your gift means families like Shaniya's never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all they should worry about is helping their child live.
More Information
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Virtual Reality: A Distraction from Sickle Cell Pain
St. Jude explores virtual reality as a distraction technique for children and teens undergoing the pain crises of sickle cell disease.
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Increasing hydroxyurea dose helps to keep young sickle cell patients out of the hospital
Higher doses of hydroxyurea in children with sickle cell disease boosts their fetal hemoglobin levels and significantly reduces hospitalizations.
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The Future Starts Now
When it comes to sickle cell disease, St. Jude researchers have their sights set on the future.
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Meet Maddalynn and Maziya
Sharing the same diagnosis of sickle cell disease as her little sister, Maddalynn, Maziya and her family were better able to help Maddalynn with her treatment.
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Sickle Cell Disease: A Hospital's Commitment
St. Jude enhances its sickle cell program to look beyond symptom relief to a cure.
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Meet D'Avalon
D’Avalon has been fighting sickle cell disease since he was a newborn. But thanks to treatment at St. Jude, he's able to look to the future with optimism.
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Meet Courtney
Audrey feared for her unborn child. Would her daughter, Courtney, inherit the disease that had killed Audrey's nephew?
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Meet Cedric
When routine newborn screening showed that Cedric had sickle cell disease, his family was referred immediately to St. Jude.