St. Jude at forefront of life-changing gene therapy for sickle cell patients
Former St. Jude Children's Research Hospital patient Donte Johnson began receiving gene-editing therapy in 2020. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
Gene therapy, which modifies a person’s genes to treat or cure a disease, looks promising as a potential cure for everything from diabetes and blindness to cancer and muscular dystrophy.
At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the technique is being used to give sickle cell disease patients like Donte Johnson of Memphis a new lease on life.
Since infancy, Johnson, 23, has lived with the debilitating, inherited blood disorder, characterized by chronic pain. As a child, he was treated at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s pediatric sickle cell clinic.
Topics
Sickle Cell Disease St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Dr. Alexandra Leonard Casgevy Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
Subscribers to The Daily Memphian help fund our not-for-profit newsroom of nearly 40 local journalists plus more than 20 freelancers, all of whom work around the clock to cover the issues impacting our community. Subscriptions - and donations - also help fund our community access programs which provide free access to K-12 schools, community organizations, and more. Thank you for making our work possible.
Aisling Mäki
Aisling Mäki covers health care, banking and finance, technology and professions. After launching her career in news two decades ago, she worked in public relations for almost a decade before returning to journalism in 2022.
As a health care reporter, she’s collaborated with The Carter Center, earned awards from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists and won a 2024 Tennessee Press Association first-place prize for her series on discrepancies in Shelby County life expectancy by ZIP code.
Want to comment on our stories or respond to others? Join the conversation by subscribing now. Only paid subscribers can add their thoughts or upvote/downvote comments. Our commenting policy can be viewed here.