Hemoglobin Switching Meeting

Abstract The biennial Hemoglobin Switching Conferences have been ongoing for 47 years, and there are multiple reasons for its resounding, continued success. First and foremost, the current organizers Sankaran, Zon, and Brand, following in the footsteps of the prior organizers Stamatoyannopoulos, Nienhuis, Higgs, and Engel, strive to identify and highlight new discoveries by always including early stage and diverse investigators and studies that impinge on the process of globin biosynthesis. Second, this is the only venue (other than the annual ASH meeting, with more than 30,000 participants) that brings together basic scientists and clinicians to discuss both the molecular and developmental origins of, and treatments for, the hemoglobinopathies, the most common inherited diseases in man. Third, the meetings have historically evolved with intense focus on wherever the science led, thus remaining extremely topical, and has not only been the forum for presenting the first cDNA clones, the first cloned human genomic locus (and the first mutations in same), the structure of erythropoietin and the discovery of the GATA and KLF transcription factor families, but it has also launched the careers of many of the current leaders in this field (indeed, numerous former postdoctoral fellows and current faculty first presented their work in plenary sessions at this conference). Fourth, this is the only meeting on this topic that routinely has approximately equal attendance by investigators from both inside and outside the U.S., and this fact is reflected by the biennial alternation in conference site between the U.S. and Europe. Fifth, this is the key venue where important basic science discoveries have led to key clinical advances, For example, the work by Sankaran, Orkin, and others reporting BCL11A as a key regulator of fetal hemoglobin, which was initially reported at this meeting, has now led to the recent approval in the UK of the first CRISPR curative therapy for sickle cell disease and thalassemia. In 2024 the Conference will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.