Griffin P. Rodgers is the director of the

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) is part of the United States National Institutes of Health, which in turn is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. NIDDK is approximately the fifth-largest ...

, one of the 27 institutes that make up the United States

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. 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 Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red bl ...

Education

Rodgers graduated from Brown University for his undergraduate (1976), graduate (1979), and medical degrees (1979), and holds an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School (also Carey Business School or simply Carey) is the Graduate school, graduate business school of Johns Hopkins University, a Private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It was e ...

(2005). He is a hematologist who has been

board-certified Board certification is the process by which a physician or other professional demonstrates a mastery of advanced knowledge and skills through written, practical, or simulator-based testing. Certification bodies There are more than 25 boards that ...

in internal medicine, emergency medicine, and hematology.

NIH career

Rodgers first joined the NIH in 1984. He became the Chief of the Molecular and Clinical Hematology Branch in 1998 and the NIDDK Deputy Director in 2001. In 2006, he assumed the directorship on an acting basis and this position was made permanent in 2007 by the NIH's director at the time,

Elias Zerhouni Elias Zerhouni (in Arabic إلياس زرهوني) (born April 12, 1951) is an Algerian-born American scientist, radiologist and biomedical engineer. He spent much of his career on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, ...

Research

Rodgers is a

physician-scientist A physician-scientist is traditionally a holder of a medical degree and a doctor of philosophy also known as an MD-PhD. Compared to other clinicians, physician-scientists invest significant time and professional effort in scientific research an ...

who studies diseases of bone marrow and is best known for his work on the

molecular genetics Molecular genetics is a sub-field of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the ...

of hemoglobinopathies and on developing a treatment for

. He was a major contributor to the development of

hydroxyurea Hydroxycarbamide, also known as hydroxyurea, is a medication used in sickle-cell disease, essential thrombocythemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, polycythemia vera, and cervical cancer. In sickle-cell disease it increases fetal hemoglobin and d ...

therapy, which was approved by the

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

in 1998. A 2009 study, published under the mentorship of Griffin P. Rodgers, discovered that in human erythrocytes (peripheral blood CD34+ cells), the stem cell factor (SCF) induces γ-globin gene expression by regulating downstream transcription factor

COUP-TFII COUP-TFII (COUP transcription factor 2), also known as NR2F2 (nuclear receptor subfamily 2, group F, member 2) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''NR2F2'' gene. The COUP acronym stands for chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter. Functio ...

, which can be a crucial molecular mechanism that has the potential for the development of effective pharmacologic strategies for treatment of patients with sickle cell disease or other β-hemoglobinopathies. However, a 2015 study by a group from University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), was unable to replicate, and hence contradicted, the 2009 study. The 2015 study concludes that "we were unable to provide evidence for COUP-TFII expression under any in vivo or in vitro culture condition from human or mouse adult erythroid cells, confirming previous microarray, as well as RNA-seq studies."

Awards and memberships

Rodgers was awarded a Mastership from the American College of Physicians in 2005. He received an honorary

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

degree from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodgers, Griffin P. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people National Institutes of Health people American hematologists Brown University alumni Alpert Medical School alumni Johns Hopkins Carey Business School alumni African-American scientists 20th-century American physicians 21st-century American physicians 20th-century African-American physicians 21st-century African-American physicians Members of the National Academy of Medicine