Charity Oyedeji
Duke University, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
People with sickle cell disease (SCD), an inherited blood disorder, now live far longer than in the past. Median life expectancy has risen from 14 years in 1973 to about 61 years in recent academic center cohorts.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
Physiology
- Topics
sickle cell disease
hematology
aging
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Evaluate the validity and reliability of the Sickle Cell Disease Functional Assessment (SCD-FA) in a prospective cohort of adults with sickle cell disease.
- Test whether SCD-FA results predict yearly days hospitalized, day-hospital and emergency department visits, dependence in Activities of Daily Living, and death.
- Identify risk factors for impaired physical performance among adults with sickle cell disease.
- Adapt and pilot SickleFit, a virtual tailored exercise program derived from Gerofit, combined with dietitian-facilitated nutrition, in adults with SCD aged 40 and older.
More about the research
Many adults with SCD still lose physical, social and thinking abilities because of aging and disease complications such as bone death (avascular necrosis), stroke, heart and lung disease, and poor nutrition. No validated tool exists to measure physical function in these patients, and no proven program exists to improve it.
Why it matters
A validated functional assessment could help clinicians see where aging adults with sickle cell disease are most vulnerable and choose interventions accordingly. It could also track whether patients improve. Piloting exercise and nutrition support may lay the groundwork for programs that reduce disability and hospitalization and improve quality of life as this population grows older.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kenneth Ataga
University of Tennessee Health Science Center, TN·Medicine & Clinical Research
Build a machine learning model that predicts chronic kidney disease progression in adults with sickle cell disease, using data from a prospective, multicenter study.
Enrico Novelli
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine whether hemin, a toxic breakdown product of hemoglobin, and hypoxia (low oxygen) trigger VLA-4-driven blood-cell stickiness in sickle cell mice, measured by PET imaging with the tracer 64Cu-LLP2A.
Renee Manworren
University of Texas at Arlington, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Collect pain-related gene variants, NIH HEAL common data elements, social determinants of health and other biopsychosocial data over time from 1,000 Black adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease in three U.S. regions.
The school
Duke University: 61 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 417 research doctorates a year.
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