Medical College Graduate Student Receives NIH Grant to Study Sickle Cell Disease

                  Timothy C. Flewelen, B.S., a graduate student in biophysics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has received a pre-doctoral fellowship grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study blood vessel dysfunction in sickle cell disease.

Sickle cell disease is one of the most commonly inherited blood disorders among persons of Mediterranean, Hispanic and African descent. The disease is characterized by sickled shaped red blood cells. The shape is due to a mutation in the genes that make hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells. Those affected with sickle cell disease suffer from extreme bone and joint pain, chronic infection, stroke and pulmonary hypertension.

Flewelen is mentored by Neil Hogg Ph.D, associate professor of biophysics, and by Cheryl Hillery M.D., professor of pediatrics in the division of hematology/oncology. The grant will provide up to five years of support totaling $31,000 per year.