ASH Special Lecture

[ASH Special Lecture] Advances in gene therapy for nonmalignant blood disorders

Alexis A Thompson (Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University, United States of America)

Dr. Alexis Thompson is the Hematology Section Head at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. She holds the A. Watson and Sarah Armour Endowed Chair for Blood Diseases and Cancer at Lurie Children’s. She is also a Professor of Pediatrics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her clinical interests include hemoglobinopathies (thalassemia and sickle cell disease), bone marrow failure syndromes and stem cell transplantation in pediatric patients. In her current position, she is an investigator on multi-center trials and as well as her own institutional clinical studies in thalassemia, sickle cell disease and ITP. Her most significant scientific contributions are clinical and translation studies to better understand and treat hemoglobinopathies. She has been a leader in multicenter collaborations, such as the NHLBI-funded Thalassemia Clinical Research Network and the Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium. Dr. Thompson is also the Associate Director for Equity and Minority Health at the Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She has served on regional and national on advisory committees for governmental agencies as well as non-profit organizations focused on improving healthcare access, increasing workforce diversity and reducing health disparities. Currently she is President of the American Society of Hematology.