Announcing Sickle Cell Branch and New Lasker Fellow in DIR

It is with great pleasure that I announce that a Sickle Cell Branch is being established in the DIR.  As you may have heard from Dr. Gibbons during his address at the NHLBI Awards Ceremony, this is a priority area for the NHLBI and is aligned with its mission.  We are very fortunate that Dr. Swee Lay Thein, M.B,B.S; FRCP, D.Sc, an international expert in sickle cell disease, will be joining the DIR as Senior Investigator in the Spring of 2015 to lead this new branch.  Dr. Thein is coming to us from King’s College, London where she -has-- is currently a Professor of Molecular Hematology and the head of the Division of Gene and Cell Therapy.   Dr. Thein was educated and received her medical training in both Malaysia and the UK, and is a member of several Sickle Cell Disease networks globally.  Over the course of her career she has made major contributions to our understanding of sickle cell phenotypes as well as pioneered new treatment strategies in clinical trials. Joining Dr. Thein in the Sickle Cell Branch will be a newly awarded Lasker Clinical Research Scholar, Dr. Hans Ackerman, M.D., D.Phil, M.Sc.  Dr. Ackerman comes to us from NIAID where he was an Assistant Clinical Investigator.  He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his D.Phil from Oxford.  Dr. Ackerman’s team is studying the vascular complications associated with sickle cell disease and malaria. Also joining this newly created Branch will be Drs. John Tisdale, James Taylor, and Courtney Fitzhugh.