News

The cannabis company Parallel, which aims to improve quality of life with its products, has launched a 10-year collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, known as Pitt, to investigate the potential of medical marijuana for treating people with sickle cell disease (SCD). Pitt’s research program will receive an…

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of a rare disease film festival originally slated for May, its organizers set out to find a new way to bring the films to an audience.  Co-founders Daniel DeFabio and Bo Bigelow, who are both fathers of children with…

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) awarded nearly $1 million to Athena Starlard-Davenport, a professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), to support work into fetal hemoglobin as a potential way of treating sickle cell disease (SCD). “For the past 100 years,…

With a stem cell transplant (SCT) being a potentially curative treatment for sickle cell disease (SCD), a blood disorder that disproportionately affects Blacks, a donor registry is encouraging more African-Americans to join its ranks. Be The Match, the world’s largest and most diverse marrow registry, has opened…

Emotional distress affected nearly half of the parents caring for adolescents with sickle cell disease in a recent study, with greater numbers of hospital visits and other life disruptions predicting higher stress levels. Psychosocial support and education to help caregivers be more resilient and better able to cope could improve…

Cannabis could be a safe and potentially effective way of easing chronic pain in people with sickle cell disease (SCD), according to results of a small clinical trial. Although the benefits in pain were not statistically significant compared to a placebo, pain interference in mood decreased over the five-day…

An umbilical cord blood transplant, coupled with a reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen, can safely and effectively treat children with genetic disorders that include sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassemia, data from a Phase 2 trial show. These findings are detailed in the study, “Reduced-intensity single-unit…