Bone Marrow for Hemoglobinopathy Research

These studies are designed to evaluate the potential of retroviral vector mediated gene transfer, gene editing, or drug treatment to correct the pathophysiology of sickle cell anemia and β-thalassemia. CD34+ cells purified from bone marrow of research participants with a sickle cell syndrome or a thalassemia syndrome will be subjected to genetic editing, drug treatment, or transduced with retroviral vectors containing γ-globin coding sequences under the control of the β-globin gene promoter and including various regulatory elements chosen to enhance gene expression and to insulate regulatory elements from cellular genes at or near the integration sites. The efficiency of gene transfer and the function of the globin transgene will be evaluated in erythroid cells derived from transduced progenitors and from the progenitors in the bone marrow of immunodeficient mice engrafted with transduced, primitive hematopoietic cells. The hypothesis to be tested in this research is that a gene therapy vector, gene editing strategy, or drug modality can be designed to achieve a potentially therapeutic level of globin gene expression in maturing erythroid cells.