With spring break quickly approaching, let’s take a look at some breaking scientific discoveries and news, from a new sickle cell disease cure to continued federal funding cuts.
Hopkins researchers develop a bone marrow transplantation method to cure sickle cell disease
Researchers at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center have recently co-developed a promising novel bone marrow transplant process to cure sickle cell anemia.
The condition causes red blood cells to become misshapen “sickle” shaped cells due to a point mutation in one of the subunits of hemoglobin — the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells. These misshapen cells can stick together and block off blood vessels, resulting in blood clots and oxygen shortages throughout the body.
The researchers developed a method known as reduced-intensity haploidentical bone marrow transplantation, which requires the patient to receive bone marrow from a half-matched “haploidentical” donor — typically a closely related but non-identical family member. The team found that transplanting half-matched bone marrow after low-dose chemotherapy, followed by up to a year of immunosuppressive treatment, resulted in an 88% cure rate of sickle cell disease in human patients after two years.
Prior to the development of this method, multiple CRISPR gene-editing methods were thought to be the best method to cure sickle cell disease. However, these gene-editing methods come with a few drawbacks, including extremely high treatment prices between $2 million to $3 million, high-dose chemotherapy and up to 50 required blood transfusions. The newly tested bone marrow transplantation method improves on these drawbacks, including by bringing the price down to under $500,000, reducing the severity of chemotherapy and lessening the number of blood transfusions required post-procedure.
Francis Collins, former NIH director, retires
On March 1, 2025, former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins announced his retirement from the NIH. Collins was heavily involved in the Human Genome Project and COVID-19 vaccine research during his tenure at the NIH. In his official statement, he stressed the institute’s long-standing reputation of strong bipartisan support, which has been challenged by the federal funding freezes and cuts recently imposed by the presidential administration.
“When you hear about patients surviving stage 4 cancer because of immunotherapy, that was based on NIH research over many decades,” Collins wrote in his statement. “When you hear about sickle cell disease being cured because of CRISPR gene editing, that was built on many years of research supported by NIH... [My NIH colleagues] personify excellence in every way, and they deserve the utmost respect and support of all Americans.”
Undergraduate research programs canceled
In the past couple months, many National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs at various colleges and universities — including Hopkins — have been canceled or shrunken. The cancellations of these REU programs, which have traditionally provided summer research internships for thousands of students around the country, was attributed to the uncertainty in NSF funding during the recent months.
“Due to the recent executive orders and uncertainty stemming from this lack of support for science funding by the Trump Administration, the NSF is unable to proceed with the initial funding recommendation anticipated to support the REU program,” a statement from the University of California, Merced’s Department of Physics read.
BioREU, hosted by the Department of Biology, has also been canceled, citing similar funding concerns. Outside of NSF REU programs, the NIH’s flagship undergraduate Summer Internship Program, which normally brings around 1,200 students to its research facilities each year, has been canceled. This series of program cancellations have sparked concern among students and faculty alike and pose uncertainties for the future of undergraduate research in the U.S.
2024 YR4 now has a near-zero chance of hitting Earth
The “city-killer” asteroid 2024 YR4, which had a 3.1% chance of hitting our planet, now has a near-zero chance of crashing into Earth. Throughout February, the asteroid had a Torino scale impact rating of 3, which describes an asteroid with at least a 1% chance of colliding with the Earth and causing significant damage. However, analysis of more recent trajectory data collected over the past month has determined that 2024 YR4 now has a 0.00082%, or 1 in 120,000, chance of making impact with Earth. 2024 YR-4 serves as a significant example of our increasing ability to spot potentially hazardous objects, and future telescope developments will give astronomers ample time to analyze and accurately evaluate potential collision threats.
