Howard University and Howard University Hospital recently announced the appointment of James G. Taylor as director of its Center for Sickle Cell Disease, a key U.S. institute for the study of new sickle cell drugs.
Taylor will serve as a professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology. He will also be an attending physician at Howard University Hospital.
“The Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease has a history of treating a high volume of patients,” Taylor said. “As a result, we have participated in every major clinical trial that has led to FDA-approved medications for sickle cell, including the recent FDA approval of L-glutamine, the first new medication in two decades. We continue to have an opportunity to make major scientific contributions in the field of non-malignant hematology.”
The Center for Sickle Cell Disease, founded in 1972 by the late Roland B. Scott, has a distinguished history of leading clinical investigation in sickle cell disease.
The center, which also has a long-standing commitment to research advocacy and community outreach, particularly screens for the sickle cell trait. However, the disease itself, as a severe hereditary blood disorder affecting 100,000 people in the United States, is prevalent in African-Americans and many other people of African descent throughout the world.
Taylor, who previously worked as a clinical investigator at the National Institutes of Health, is committed to further expanding Howard University’s clinical and translational research programs with a focus on new treatments and opportunities for curative therapy.
Taylor earned his medical degree with honors in 1995 in research from the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed a residency in pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine/St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He also served as a clinical fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology and a postdoctoral genetics research fellow at the National Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
