Kellyn George | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality | Dominica |
| Occupation | Researcher |
| Years active | 2013–present |
| Known for | Establishing Sickle Cell Cares Foundation |
Kellyn George is from Dominica and in 2013 created a support foundation to help people with sickle cell anemia in her homeland. In 2015, she was awarded Queen's Young Leader Award for her activism in changing the lives of people in her community.
Kellyn George is a Dominican from the village of Mahaut. [1] In 2006 she earned a double associate degree from Dominica State College in chemistry and biology [2] and went on to study at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, from 2006 to 2008. [3] [4] From 2008 to 2010, George studied biology at Barry University and in 2011 her research team was the first-place winner of the Biology S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Award at the 3rd Annual S.T.E.M. Research Symposium, for their work on the "effect of embryonic ethanol exposure on zebrafish cranial motor neuron development". [5]
Completing her studies, George returned to Dominica where she worked with the Commonwealth of Dominica on their Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Electronic Government for Regional Integration Project (E-GRIP) in 2012. At the end of 2013, George took a research officer's position at the Livestock Development Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture. [2]
In January 2013, George founded an NGO called the Sickle Cell Cares Foundation to provide information and education about sickle cell disease in Dominica. [1] George, who serves as director of the organization, [6] recognized the need for additional support because she has had the disease all her life [7] and statistics show that 35% of the citizens of the island have the disease. [6]
In January 2015, George was named as one of the winners of the inaugural Queen's Young Leaders Award for 2014 for her work in improving the lives of her fellow citizens. [8] The awards were bestowed in June 2015. [9]
Vernon Martin Ingram, was a German–American professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rudolf Jaenisch is a Professor of Biology at MIT and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He is a pioneer of transgenic science, in which an animal’s genetic makeup is altered. Jaenisch has focused on creating genetically modified mice to study cancer, epigenetic reprogramming and neurological diseases.
Seymour Jonathan Singer was an American cell biologist and professor of biology, emeritus, at the University of California, San Diego.
William Bosworth Castle was an American physician and physiologist who transformed hematology from a "descriptive art to a dynamic interdisciplinary science."
The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe. The site is located at the southern end of Hills Road in Cambridge, England.
The New York Blood Center (NYBC) is a community, nonprofit blood bank based in New York City. Established in 1964 by Dr. Aaron Kellner, NYBC supplies blood to approximately 200 hospitals in the Northeast United States. NYBC and its operating divisions also provide transfusion-related medical services to over 500 hospitals nationally.
Ralph Lawrence Brinster is an American geneticist, National Medal of Science laureate, and Richard King Mellon Professor of Reproductive Physiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
"Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease" is a 1949 scientific paper by Linus Pauling, Harvey A. Itano, Seymour J. Singer and Ibert C. Wells that established sickle-cell anemia as a genetic disease in which affected individuals have a different form of the metalloprotein hemoglobin in their blood. The paper, published in the November 25, 1949 issue of Science, reports a difference in electrophoretic mobility between hemoglobin from healthy individuals and those with sickle-cell anemia, with those with sickle cell trait having a mixture of the two types. The paper suggests that the difference in electrophoretic mobility is probably due to a different number of ionizable amino acid residues in the protein portion of hemoglobin, and that this change in molecular structure is responsible for the sickling process. It also reports the genetic basis for the disease, consistent with the simultaneous genealogical study by James V. Neel: those with sickle-cell anemia are homozygous for the disease gene, while heterozygous individuals exhibit the usually asymptomatic condition of sickle cell trait.
Sickle cell disease (SCD), one of the hemoglobinopathies, is a group of blood disorders typically inherited. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red blood cells. This leads to a rigid, sickle-like shape under certain circumstances. Problems in sickle cell disease typically begin around 5 to 6 months of age. A number of health problems may develop, such as attacks of pain, anemia, swelling in the hands and feet, bacterial infections, and stroke. Long-term pain may develop as people get older. The average life expectancy in the developed world is 40 to 60 years.
George Quentin Daley is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. He was formerly the Robert A. Stranahan Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Boston Children's Hospital, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Associate Director of Children's Stem Cell Program, a member of the Executive Committee of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He is a past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2007–2008).
Marilyn Hughes Gaston is a physician and researcher. She was the first black woman to direct the Bureau of Primary Health Care in the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. She is most famous for her work studying sickle cell disease (SCD).
Julie Makani is a Tanzanian medical researcher. From 2014 she is Wellcome Trust Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS). Also a visiting fellow and consultant to the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, she is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In 2011, she received the Royal Society Pfizer Award for her work with sickle cell disease.
Adeyinka Gladys Falusi, FAS NPOM, is a Nigerian Professor of haematology and former Director of the Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.
The Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. (SCDAA) is a nonprofit organization with the sole purpose of supporting research, education and funding of individuals, families those who are impacted by sickle cell disease.
Angella Dorothea Ferguson is an American pediatrician known for her groundbreaking research on sickle cell disease.
Doris Louise Wethers was an American pediatrician known for her research on sickle-cell disease.
Clarice D. Reid is an American pediatrician born in Birmingham, Alabama, who led the National Sickle Cell Disease Program at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health. She went on to become the Director of Division of Blood Diseases and Resources at NHLBI. Reid was a member of the 1985-1986 Taskforce on Black and Minority Health. She has also served as President Emeritus on the American Bridge Association's Education and Charitable Foundation, and has scored a rare perfect bridge score.
Griffin P. Rodgers is the director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, one of the 27 institutes that make up the United States National Institutes of Health. He is also the Chief of the institute's Molecular and Clinical Hematology Branch and is known for contributions to research and therapy for sickle cell anemia.
Stuart Holland Orkin is an American physician, stem cell biologist and researcher in pediatric hematology-oncology. He is the David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Orkin's research has focused on the genetic basis of blood disorders. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Yvette Francis-McBarnette was an American pediatrician and a pioneer in treating children with sickle cell anaemia.