Thompson to Discuss Sickle Cell Cures, Equity

Dr. Alexis Thompson will deliver the annual Marshall W. Nirenberg Lecture on Jan. 29 at 2 p.m., ET in Bldg. 10, Lipsett Amphitheater.

Thompson’s talk, titled “Sickle Cell Disease: Progress and Opportunities for Equity,” will cover her work leading clinical research on the groundbreaking gene therapy called lovotibeglogene autotemcel, also known as LYFGENIA, and address challenges in making such transformative treatments more accessible. Developed in collaboration with NHLBI Senior Investigator Dr. John Tisdale, the treatment was one of the two gene therapies approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023 for treating severe sickle cell disease in adolescents and adults.

Thompson is chief of the Division of Hematology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one of the select treatment centers offering FDA-approved gene therapies for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Certified in pediatric hematology-oncology, Thompson received her MPH in health services from the University of California, Los Angeles, and earned her MD from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. She was named one of 2021’s Exceptional Women in Medicine by Chicago Magazine and served as president of the American Society of Hematology.

The Nirenberg lecture recognizes outstanding contributions to genetics and molecular biology. Established in 2011, the lectureship honors Marshall Nirenberg for his work deciphering the genetic code, for which he received the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

For those unable to attend in person, the event will be hosted on NIH videocast at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=55018.