Adult Hematology Treatment Center
Research
The Hematology Division's research activities are focused on both basic and clinical research. The Division has a rich tradition of basic science research at the forefront of molecular hematology.
Current basic research within the laboratories of the Division faculty is focused widely on understanding the molecular basis of hematopoietic cell differentiation and its disruption in hematologic disease. The burgeoning of new genomic techniques is allowing these studies to extend to the discovery of new therapeutic approaches to treating diseases.
Particular emphasis has been placed on platelet formation and function, sickle cell disease and its treatment, neutrophil maturation and function and their disruption in myelodysplasia, the pathogenesis of anemia of the elderly, and normal hematopoietic differentiation pathways that are disrupted in leukemia.
Division faculty members also actively pursue clinical and translational research. Several projects focus on sickle cell disease. The Division is part of a national, multi-institutional study evaluating the efficacy of inhaled nitric oxide gas as additive pain relief therapy in sickle cell disease. Another proposed study, to be performed jointly with the Hematology Division at Yale, will evaluate the efficacy of a novel, cell-free hemoglobin solution to treat sickle cell painful crisis.
The Division also has several clinical projects related to bleeding and thrombosis. In Hemophilia A there is an ongoing study of a novel, long-acting Factor VIII replacement product. Another study focuses on the significance of thrombocytopenia following heparin exposure. Several other studies are focused on the pathophysiology of bone marrow failure. One set of studies is investigating the role of inflammatory mediators such as hepcidin, IL6, and related cytokines in the development of anemia in the elderly and in the natural history of myelodysplasia.
In association with our colleagues in the Leukemia Division at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Hematology Division will be piloting a clinical study, based on laboratory work that originated in the Division, of a novel nucleoside treatment for refractory adult leukemia.
