UC researcher receives funding to study bone complications in people with sickle cell disease

September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month, and a University of Cincinnati College of Medicine hematology researcher has received new grant funding to study one of the disease's painful, under-recognized complications: bone damage. 

Jahnavi Gollamudi, MD, a research assistant professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology within the Department of Internal Medicine, has received a National Institutes of Health/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Physician Scientist Award (K12), which includes a grant valued at more than $400,000 disbursed over the next two years to support her research on how bone cells promote bone pain in people with sickle cell disease. She also received an American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2026 Scholar Award - a competitive $150,000 research grant - to study factors driving bone complications in sickle cell disease. Both awards underscore a strong early-career trajectory for Gollamudi.

What is sickle cell disease?

Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 people in the United States. In people with SCD, red blood cells become rigid and deform into a crescent or sickle shape. Sickled cells die prematurely and often become lodged in small blood vessels, restricting blood flow and causing serious health problems throughout the body. Many people may know about anemia in sickle cell disease, but bone complications are less frequently discussed.

Bone complications in sickle cell disease patients

Those with sickle cell disease tend to develop early-onset osteoporosis, which weakens bones and makes them brittle. They also develop compression fractures and avascular necrosis, which is the death of bone tissue caused by a temporary or permanent loss of blood supply. We also know red blood cell disorders, particularly sickle cell disease, involve significant inflammation. Our research will investigate how this inflammation can lead to bone complications and whether inflammatory markers can help predict who is at higher risk, potentially enabling earlier intervention."

Jahnavi Gollamudi, MD, research assistant professor, Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

She will also explore how bone complications, and particularly bone cells, cause bone pain in patients with sickle cell disease.

"Individuals with sickle cell disease experience chronic musculoskeletal pain, which markedly diminishes their quality of life," said Gollamudi. "The goal of this project is to identify if bone cells are drivers for musculoskeletal pain."

Currently, there are no targeted pain therapies, and opioid treatments have limited efficacy, Gollamudi said. Building on her findings about the role of inflammation in bone complications, her research will examine whether treatments already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can be leveraged to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain.

"We think there are FDA-approved medications already on the market that could be used to treat bone complications and bone pain in patients with sickle cell disease," said Gollamudi.

Mentorship

Gollamudi currently conducts her research in the lab of her mentor, Hyacinth Hyacinth, MD, PhD, a professor in the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine. The Hyacinth lab focuses on sickle cell disease, including its impact on stroke risk, and researchers there investigate a range of sickle cell disease complications. 

Another UC mentor, Michael Jankowski, PhD, a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and a member of Cincinnati Children's Division of Anesthesiology and its Pain Management Center, contributes expertise that's directly relevant to Gollamudi's investigation into chronic musculoskeletal pain in people with sickle cell disease.

Outside UC, Gollamudi has two additional mentors: Jane Little, MD, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of its comprehensive sickle cell disease program; and Lalitha Nayak, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, specializing in the care of patients with complex bleeding and clotting disorders at the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center Hematology Clinic.

"These are powerful women physician-scientists who have inspired me," said Gollamudi. "Their work in sickle cell disease and hematology has shaped how I approach both patient care and research, and I am grateful for their guidance."