St. Jude is working toward better treatments and cures for children and teens with sickle cell disease.
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:
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 the disease. 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.
St. Jude Sickle Cell Clinical Research and Intervention Program
The SCCRIP study helps scientists understand how sickle cell disease progresses and how genetic changes affect disease severity.
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.
Recently announced 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 new program, announced in September 16, 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.
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.
Diagnosed with sickle cell disease, Shaniya came to
St. Jude when she was 5 years old. Now 16, she strives to be a normal teenager, one not defined by her disease. Teens with sickle cell face challenges when transitioning from adolescent to adult care.
St. Jude is working to reverse that trend with education, research and partnerships with adult care facilities.
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.