Deion Sanders “Coach Prime” to speak as the Foundation Keynote
June 8, 2025 at 12:00pm EST
Football legion Deion Sanders “Coach Prime” will inspire Sickle Cell Warriors as the Foundation Keynote at the 19th Annual Sickle Cell Disease Research and Educational Symposium & the 48th National Sickle Cell Disease Scientific Meeting.
Coach Prime will share his own experience in defying expectations, overcoming adversity, and inspiring greatness, both on and off the field.
ABOUT
the Annual Sickle Cell Disease Research and Educational Symposium & the National Sickle Cell Disease Scientific Meeting
Friday to Sunday, June 6-8, 2025
The Foundation for Sickle Cell Disease Research is practically synonymous with our world-renowned annual Symposium. The event is composed of two long-running traditions. The Annual Sickle Cell Disease Research and Educational Symposium began in 2007 to unite voices in the battle against sickle cell disease. The goal was to share information not only with the specialists who had dedicated their careers to understanding the disease but to explain it to the wider community, creating more awareness and better treatments no matter where Sickle Cell Warriors needed care.
The National Sickle Cell Disease Scientific Meeting brings together researchers who studied the complicated and often overlooked genetic condition. The pioneering scientists who attended that first meeting understood that sharing research as a community allows for better advancements in the treatment of sickle cell disease.
Today, the Annual Sickle Cell Disease Research and Educational Symposium & the National Sickle Cell Disease Scientific Meeting attracts individuals from across the globe. The community of leading researchers, physicians, clinicians, stakeholders, advocates, social workers, and Sickle Cell Warriors themselves share the goal of finding better treatments, and ultimately, a cure for sickle cell disease.
This Symposium also can be attended virtually, with key presentations streamed live and a collection of recordings available after the weekend concludes.
Don’t miss the opportunity to join the conversation, learn the latest in sickle cell disease research, and connect with the wider community.
Julia Xu, M.D., MScGH
Scientific Chair
Dr. Julia Z. Xu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Classical Hematology and the Vascular Medicine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. She specializes in the care of adults with sickle cell disease and other red blood cell disorders.
She received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and earned her MD from Columbia University. She completed combined internal medicine-global health residency training at Duke University, where she obtained a Master of Science in Global Health and conducted research internationally as a Fogarty International Center fellow and completed her hematology fellowship training at the NIH.
Dr. Xu’s research is focused on evaluating therapies and biomarkers to address the burden of chronic anemia in sickle cell disease and working with local and international partners to improve the care of individuals living with sickle cell disease globally. She has led multiple early-phase clinical trials of novel drug therapies and combination drug therapies in patients with sickle cell disease and is investigating the potential of biomarkers of blood rheology and tissue perfusion to improve care in sickle cell disease.
Santosh L. Saraf, M.D.
Scientific Co-Chair
Dr. Santosh L. Saraf currently serves as the Director of Translational Research for the Sickle Cell Center and the Fellowship Program Director for Hematology & Oncology.
He received his medical degree from the Temple University School of Medicine and completed an internal medicine residency and hematology & oncology fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Saraf joined the Division of Hematology & Oncology at UIC in 2012 and completed a Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Research through the University of Illinois School of Public Health in 2014.
Dr. Saraf focuses his clinical care and research on understanding the mechanisms of kidney disease in patients with sickle cell disease and on developing curative therapies through hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with clinically aggressive sickle cell disease.
Cheedy Jaja, PhD, MPH, MSN, MN, PMHNP-BC, APRN, FAAN
Scientific Co-Chair
Dr. Cheedy Jaja is an Associate Professor of Nursing. His interest in social justice, health disparities, and improving health outcomes in historically marginalized and vulnerable populations such as those with sickle cell disease drives his global health research, clinical, and advocacy initiatives in the USA and Africa.
He is one of only a few nurse scientists prepared to use pharmacogenetics strategies in pharmacotherapy for sickle cell disease with a focus on developing tailored pharmacogenetics algorithms that optimize drug selection, dosing, and monitoring strategies for sickle cell disease pain.
He has received national recognition for his research contributions as evidenced by being selected as a 2016 NIH Future Research Leader, a 2018 Fulbright Program Scholar, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2020.