Announcements: Kudos

Swee Lay Thein Awarded 2024 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine

Congratulations to Swee Lay Thein, chief of the NHLBI Laboratory of Sickle Cell Genetics and Pathophysiology, who was awarded the prestigious 2024 Shaw Prize in the Life Science and Medicine category.

Thein shares the honor with Stuart Orkin of Harvard Medical School (Boston) "for their discovery of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the fetal-to-adult hemoglobin switch, making possible a revolutionary and highly effective genome-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia, devastating blood diseases that affect millions of people worldwide," according to the award citation.

The Hong Kong-based, international Shaw Prize comprises three annual awards in the fields of astronomy, life science and medicine, and mathematical sciences and “honors individuals…who have made outstanding contributions in academic and scientific research or applications, or who in other domains have achieved excellence."

Thein discovered the BCL11A gene as the key suppressor of fetal hemoglobin. This, in turn, led to the development of a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited cell therapy called exagamglogene autotemcel (Casgevy, Vertex), approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December 2023 to treat sickle cell anemia and then in January 2024 to treat beta thalassemia.