Molecular Medicine Branch - (MMB)
The Molecular Medicine Branch conducts research on fundamental mechanisms related to several human diseases. For many years the focus has been on the genetic dieeases of hemoglobin, including sickle cell anemia and thalassemia, but more recently it has broadened to other diseases of the erythroid lineaqe as well as a variety of ischemic diseases in which regulation of blood flow via nitric oxide pathways could have important therapeutic conseqences. Most of the work is laboratory-based but Branch members are active invesgtigators in multiple clinical protocols. Clinical studies, with matching laboratory programs, relate to the regulation of fetal hemoglobin expression, effects of erythropoietin, signalling in erythroid cells, the role of plasma hemoglobin and the interaction of nitric oxide and nitrite ions with erythrocytic hemoglobin.
Page last updated: January 21, 2009
