Lisa received her RN-BSN 33 years ago at Mount St. Mary’s College in L.A. and has been working in paediatrics since her junior year in school. At Children’s Hospital L.A., she received a great deal of training and mentoring, working in rehab, ICU and other areas. She also gained additional paediatric ICU experience at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California. She is a haematology/haemophilia/ sickle cell nurse coordinator. She coordinates patient care and provides teaching to patients and families. She also facilitates patient and family appointments and follow-up and takes part in their clinic visits. For the last 22 years, she has been working with the same haematologist, Dr. Nadia Ewing. They had a freestanding haematology practice near Huntington Hospital in Pasadena and then relocated to City of Hope almost 17 years ago. It was quite a transition for her, from her acute care experience to the chronic illnesses that they treat in their practice. They specialize in non-malignant haematology, including bleeding/clotting disorders, sickle cell disease and other hematologic disorders. They work with individuals ranging from birth to about 27 years of age. Online profile

Nadia Ewing, M.D., is a clinical professor of Pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Hemophilia Treatment Center at City of Hope, where she also serves as director of the Sickle Cell Program and Pediatric Hematology Consultations. Dr. Ewing earned her medical degree at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. She completed an internship and residency in pediatrics, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center. Dr. Ewing is a member of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society, the American Society of Hematology, The American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and the World Federation of Hemophilia. Her research interests include gene therapy in hemophilia, management of inhibitors in hemophilia, and genetics of inhibitor formation in hemophilia. She has written articles in The New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Haemophilia. Dr. Ewing has presented abstracts for the American Society of Hematology, ISTH, and the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society. Online profile

Dr. Niihara has been involved in patient care and research for sickle cell disease for most of his career, and is the principal inventor of the patented L-glutamine therapy for treatment of sickle cell disease in which he co-founded the bio-pharmaceutical company, Emmaus Life Sciences, Inc. It is now in phase III clinical trial involving 32 sites throughout US with FDA Drug Designation and Fast Track Designation. Additionally, his laboratory focuses on regenerative medicine using cell sheet technology. This treatment uses autologous progenitor cell sheets to repair damaged organs such as cornea epithelium and myocardium. Currently, he is the Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His areas of research are sickle cell disease, cancer & carcinogenesis, blood & blood products & transfusions, biological markers and oncology specialized techniques in research such as red cell enzyme studies and red cell nucleotide analysis. Online profile

Dr. Claster graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1976. She works in Orange, CA and specializes in Hematology. Dr. Claster is affiliated with UC Irvine Medical Center as clinical professor. Dr. Claster has a research interest in health outcomes for sickle cell disease. She has published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals covering aneamia, sickle cell diagnosis and management, thalassemia and other haemoglobinopathies. Online profile

Dr. Erica Esrick is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist in Boston Children’s Hospital affiliated with multiple centers in the area, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Medical Center. Dr. Erica is also an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and has been in practice between 11-20 years. Her clinical interests include hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Dr. Erica has treated many diseases such as anemia, bone marrow failure, germ cell tumors, kidney tumors, sickle cell disease, Thalassemia, Hemophilia, neuroblastoma, etc. Online profile

Hannah S. Lichtsinn is MD in internal medicine/paediatrics and received training in both internal medicine and pediatrics from the University of Minnesota and is affiliated with many clinics and centres in health partners’ constorium. She is particularly passionate about providing a medical home for adolescents and young adults living with sickle cell disease and enjoys working with patients and their families as they make the transition to adulthood. As an internist and pediatrician she provides preventive care and work with patients to manage acute and chronic conditions. With her combined training in medicine and paediatrics, she has experience and a special interest in working with adolescents and young adults with complex diseases. Online profile

Dr. Robert Molokie is a hematologist and is affiliated with University of Illinois Hospital. His clinical interest lies in the treatment of sickle cell disease. He is also working as an associate professor of medicine at University of Illinois College of Medicine with special interest in sickle cell anemia. Dr. Molokie received his medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and continued on to complete an internal medicine residency at the University as well. He then went on to complete a hematology/oncology fellowship at Loyola University Medical Center.   Representative Publications: APOL1, α-thalassemia, and BCL11A variants as a genetic risk profile for progression of chronic kidney disease in sickle cell anemia Efficacy and safety of long-term RN-1 treatment to increase HbF in baboons Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in sickle cell anaemia Increased vancomycin dosing requirements in sickle cell disease due to hyperfiltration-dependent and independent pathways Management of Sickle Cell Pain Using Pregabalin: A Pilot Study Online profile

Dr. Wang is a professor of pharmacology and university scholar at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is associated with various departments and centres of the university such as Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Biomolecular Sciences, Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cancer Center and Sickle Cell Center. A major objective of his laboratory is to understand the mechanisms leading to chronic pain, opioid tolerance and addiction, and opioid-induced hyperalgesia. He is also interested in developing new therapeutic targets as well as novel drugs that can be used for the treatment of pain, where the focus of pain conditions are the pain in sickle cell disease, and chemotherapy-induced pain. Recently professor Zaijie Wang received a MIRA (R35) grant for $4.6M over seven years for a project, entitled "Molecular mechanism and targeting of chronic pain in sickle cell disease".   Representative Publications: PKCδ-targeted intervention relieves chronic pain in a murine sickle cell disease model. CaMKIIα underlies the spontaneous and evoked pain behaviors in Berkeley sickle cell transgenic mice. IL1A rs1800587 associates with chronic noncrisis pain in sickle cell disease. Dopamine D3 receptor Ser9Gly and catechol-o-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphisms and acute pain in sickle cell disease. Opioid doses and acute care utilization outcomes for adults with sickle cell disease: ED versus acute care unit. Mechanism-Driven Phase I Translational Study of Trifluoperazine in Adults with Sickle Cell Disease. Online profile

Brandon Hardesty serves as an IHTC adult hematologist. Dr. Hardesty attended medical school at The Ohio State University. He completed his internal medicine residency, and his hematology/oncology fellowship at Indiana University School of Medicine. He has a special interest in disorders of hemostasis, sickle cell disease, and myeloid malignancies. He has co-authored several manuscripts in journals including haemophilia and leukemia research. Dr. Hardesty is presently working on developing a program for adults with bleeding disorders for cardiovascular disease prevention, detection and treatment, and comprehensive care program for sickle cell disease patients at the Indiana Hemophilia & Thrombosis Center. He will be joining the IHTC clinical research program and will be involved in a variety of research efforts and studies. Online profile

Dr. Walters is the director of Bone Marrow Transplantation at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. He has been the Director of Stem Cell Therapy and a Division leader since 1999. During this period, he expanded his responsibilities to develop a career in stem cell transplantation in sickle cell disease. The integration of these areas of expertise has enabled him to develop a national program focusing on novel therapies for blood disorders. Since joining Children’s Hospital, he has devoted his research career to pursuing curative therapies for hemoglobin disorders with an overarching goal of expanding this treatment more broadly to affected individuals. With NIH and industry support, he has conducted a number of multicenter clinical trials for sickle cell disease and thalassemia. Currently, he is focused on initiating early phase clinical trials to test novel genomic editing techniques in hematopoietic stem cells (HCT) from individuals affected by hemoglobin disorders, starting with a high-profile trial in sickle cell disease. Other projects in the pipeline include activation of fetal hemoglobin by genomic editing in stem cells. Online profile