Vijay G. Sankaran

Vijay G. Sankaran serves as the Jan Ellen Paradise, MD Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, an Attending Physician at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. His primary institutional affiliations span Boston Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and the Broad Institute.

Dr. Sankaran's research centers on how human genetic variation influences blood cell production (hematopoiesis) in health and disease. His laboratory employs human genetics to dissect molecular mechanisms of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, hemoglobin gene regulation (including fetal hemoglobin), and interindividual variations in hematopoiesis. The team actively develops novel therapies for blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, thalassemia, Diamond-Blackfan anemia, aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, myeloproliferative disorders, and childhood leukemia through exome/genome sequencing, functional studies of human hematopoiesis, and innovative technologies like lineage tracing and single-cell genomics.

His work has directly contributed to the development of Casgevy for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. Research interests encompass Blood Diseases, Hematopoiesis, Human Genetics, Cancer, Immunology, Bioinformatics, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Aging.

Major recognitions include:

• 2019 Seldin-Smith Award for Pioneering Research (American Society of Clinical Investigation)
• 2022 E. Mead Johnson Award (Society for Pediatric Research)
• 2024 Paul-Gallin Trailblazer Prize (Foundation for the National Institutes of Health)

He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Sankaran leads the Sankaran Laboratory, which bridges fundamental genetic discoveries with clinical translation for blood disorders through multidisciplinary approaches in human genetics and stem cell biology.