55KRC: UC studies sickle cell's effect on neurological conditions
Sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that primarily affects people of African ancestry, can cause a variety of symptoms, including muscle pain, nonhealing ulcers, stroke and cognitive impairment.
Hyacinth I. Hyacinth, PhD, MBBS, associate professor of neurology and rehabilitation medicine and the Whitaker and Price Chair in Brain Health in UC’s College of Medicine, joined 55KRC's Simply Medicine program to discuss his research into how sickle cell disease affects stroke and cognitive impairment.
Hyacinth explained that children as young as two with sickle cell disease are at risk for stroke, and children as young as three with sickle cell can have cognitive impairment.
"So that in itself makes it a heartbreaking complication, because when you see a five-year-old with a stroke, it’s heart wrenching," he told Simply Medicine.
Cognitive impairment is in part caused by inflammation in the brain, and Hyacinth's lab recently received new grant funding to test if a drug can help "turn down" the inflammation and reduce cognitive impairment.
Listen to the Simply Medicine interview. (Note: Segment begins around 9:30 mark of program.)
Read more about Hyacinth's research.
Featured photo at top of Hyacinth working in his lab. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand.
Related Stories
High Court offers protections for therapy speech
April 5, 2026
Jennifer Bard, a professor in the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law and the UC Department of Internal Medicine, spoke with journalists about the US Supreme Court ruling granting first amendment protections for speech offered during therapy sessions.
Scientists discover how snakes stand upright without limbs
April 3, 2026
Smithsonian magazine highlights a study co-authored by UC Professor Bruce Jayne, an expert in snake locomotion, about how snakes stand upright without arms or legs.
On track: Hoffman Honors Scholar studies public transit
April 2, 2026
Public transit is where Zane Sawyer’s lifelong passion for travel meets his commitment to making an impact. The University of Cincinnati first-year geography major in the College of Arts & Sciences and member of the second cohort of Hoffman Honors Scholars (HHS) has hit the ground running, designing a research project intended to capture both how public transit works and how its users perceive it.