How St. Jude research is transforming lives for patients with sickle cell disease

Courtney is an Ivy League–educated investment banker on Wall Street. She loves to travel, enjoys Broadway musicals and lives in New York City with her two best friends from college.

At 25, she is living her best life — all while managing sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder she was diagnosed with before she was born. 

Sickle cell disease affects hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. In people with the disease, red blood cells become stiff and crescent-shaped instead of flexible and round. Those misshapen cells can block blood flow, leading to severe pain, infections, organ damage and other life-threatening complications.