Sickle Cell Awareness

Sickle Cell Awareness Month Graphic

Graphic by Omar Aguado/Office of Communications

September is Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month. Help raise awareness by attending the UTHealth Houston Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences’ Sickle Cell Disease Symposium on Sept. 27. 

According to the NIH, sickle cell disease — also called sickle cell anemia — is a group of inherited disorders that affect hemoglobin, the major protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells. Normally, red blood cells are disc-shaped and flexible so they can move easily through the blood vessels. In sickle cell disease, red blood cells are misshaped, typically crescent- or “sickle”-shaped due to a gene mutation that affects the hemoglobin molecule. When red blood cells sickle, they do not bend or move easily and can block blood flow to the rest of the body.