Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle-cell disease, or sickle-cell anaemia (or drepanocytosis), is a life-long blood disorder characterized by red blood cells that assume an abnormal, rigid, sickle shape. Sickling decreases the cells' flexibility and results in a risk of various complications.

Understanding Sickle Cell Disease

World Sickle Cell Day is June 19 and was created by the United Nations in 2006 to raise global awareness for sickle cell disease as a public health problem. Sickle cell disease is an extremely debilitating medical condition.

What is Sickle-Cell Disease?

Sickle-Cell Disease Classification

Sickle Cell Disease Diagnosis

Sickle-Cell Disease Pathophysiology

Sickle-Cell Disease Genetics

Sickle-Cell Disease Treatment

Sickle-Cell Disease History

Sickle Cell Disease Carriers

Sickle-Cell Disease Symptoms

What is Sickle Cell Trait (SCT)?

Treatment Options for Sickle Cell Disease

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COVID-19 and Sickle Cell Disease

Current Challenges in Sickle Cell Disease

Latest Sickle Cell Disease News and Research

Study highlights a persistent life expectancy gap among patients living with sickle cell disease

While research has long established disparities in health outcomes among individuals living with sickle cell disease (SCD), few studies have quantified these gaps.

16 Mar 2023

Many individuals living with sickle cell disease still lack access to new pain medications

Sickle cell disease (SCD), a rare chronic, progressive, life-threatening, inherited blood disorder, often affects individuals with chronic pain that can be debilitating to their quality of life.

9 Mar 2023

Landmark discovery provides a new perspective on tissue oxygenation

Cardiovascular medicine, hematology and pulmonary medicine may soon have the first-ever therapies to correct poor tissue oxygenation, a key driver of disease in millions, including peripheral artery disease, sickle cell disease, heart failure, stroke, emphysema and many others.

1 Mar 2023

St. Jude researchers show how drug makers can avoid toxicity and resistance

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated how drug makers can avoid two key problems: toxicity and resistance.

28 Feb 2023

Three new language versions of the 'Together by St. Jude' online resource launched

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital today announced the launch of three new language versions of the Together by St. Jude online resource, a free source of information and education for families facing childhood and adolescent cancer.

15 Feb 2023

Socioeconomic deprivation linked with increased late mortality in childhood cancer survivors

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have found that socioeconomic deprivation, the presence of treatable chronic health conditions and frailty are independently associated with increased late mortality in childhood cancer survivors.

10 Feb 2023

Researchers document link between higher risk of maternal mortality and sickle cell disease

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have further documented an association between a substantially higher risk of maternal morbidity and mortality among those with the inherited blood disorder sickle cell disease (SCD) compared to those without it.

3 Feb 2023

Bone marrow transplants may prevent blood vessel disease in patients with sickle cell disease

Bone marrow transplants prevented or improved blood vessel disease in the brains of adults with sickle cell disease, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2023.

2 Feb 2023

Scientists use next-generation protein degradation technology to study CTCF's role in transcription

CTCF is a critical protein known to play various roles in key biological processes such as transcription. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used a next-generation protein degradation technology to study CTCF.

26 Jan 2023

Cryo-electron microscopy captures the first 3D structure of SPOP protein that drives cancer

SPOP is the most mutated protein in prostate cancer and plays a role in endometrial, uterine and other cancers. Despite this importance, how SPOP mutations drive cancer has been incompletely understood.

23 Jan 2023

10 years of CRISPR genome editing: Advances, limitations, and future potential

In the decade since the publication of CRISPR-Cas9 as a genome editing technology, the CRISPR toolbox and its applications have profoundly changed biological research, enabling advances through applications in plants, animals, and humans.

20 Jan 2023

Study describes the variations in drug response across genetic subtypes of childhood leukemia

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital are reporting the most comprehensive study to date describing the variations in drug response across different genetic subtypes of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

5 Jan 2023

Mutations responsible for common inherited heart condition corrected using CRISPR-Cas9 therapy

Using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system, UT Southwestern researchers corrected mutations responsible for a common inherited heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in human cells and a mouse model of the disease.

21 Dec 2022

Cancer patients with sickle cell disease report reduction in pain and anxiety in response to music therapy

A new study from University Hospitals Connor Whole Health found patients with cancer and patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) treated at an academic cancer center reported clinically significant reductions in pain and anxiety in response to music therapy.

19 Dec 2022

For patients with sickle cell disease, fertility care is about reproductive justice

Teonna Woolford has always wanted six kids. Why six? "I don't know where that number came from. I just felt like four wasn't enough," said Woolford, a Baltimore resident. "Six is a good number."

8 Dec 2022

Scientists show how cellular hypoxia response increases fetal hemoglobin expression in adults

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have shown how a protein responsible for adapting to low oxygen conditions (hypoxia), causes increased expression of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) in adults.

12 Oct 2022

Routine newborn screening for sickle cell disease urgently needed to save lives in Africa

More than 300,000 babies globally are born every year with sickle cell, a hereditary condition which causes red blood cells to become sickle-shaped.

5 Oct 2022

Report: Less than half of children with sickle cell anemia received recommended screening and treatment

In 2019, less than half of children aged 2–16 years with sickle cell anemia received the recommended screening for stroke, a common complication of the disease, according to a new CDC Vital Signs report.

27 Sep 2022

Scientists create new tool to identify genomic safe harbor sites in specific tissues

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have created a tool that can find safe places to introduce genes into human DNA.

22 Sep 2022

Six-country African study highlights the potential dangers of getting COVID-19 during pregnancy

A new study involving hospitalized women in six African countries from the University of Maryland School of Medicine's (UMSOM) Institute of Human Virology (IHV) showed that pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had double the risk of being admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and four-times the risk of dying in-hospital than pregnant women who did not have COVID-19.

19 Jul 2022