The objectives of the Center are to provide service and to conduct and promote clinical and basic research in sickle cell anemia and related disorders. This will be done by: (a) Educating the population about these diseases and providing information, counseling and, when desirable, medical service to those who carry these abnormal genes. (b) Education of high school students, nurses, technicians, physicians and other health professionals. (c) Providing a tutorial and vocational training program to patients with these diseases. (d) Providing the opportunity for quality testing to anyone desiring this service. (e) Serving as a reference laboratory for testing programs at other institutions. (f) Supporting and directing a state-wide cord blood testing program aimed at detecting babies with clinically important hemoglobin abnormalities. (g) Promoting clinical data collection of infants with SS and SC diseases who are attending the main pediatric clinic of the Center or one of its seven satellite clinics which have been established throughout Georgia. (h) Developing new procedures to improve methods of detection of hemoglobinopathies. (i) Conducting clinical research through an analysis of factors which determine the severity of sickle cell disease in infants; an assessment of factors governing the synthesis of fetal hemoglobin in the sickling disorders; and a study of the natural history of sickle cell disease in infants. (j) Conducting basic research through an analysis of glycosylation of Hb S on its properties; through careful analyses of the Alpha chain deficiencies which occur in many families with abnormal hemoglobins; through immunological characterization and identification of hemoglobin variants; and through an evaluation of the genetic heterogeneity of Hb F in subjects with various hemoglobinopathies of different age groups.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 22 publications
