Research Overview
Long-term sequelae and complications of transfusion and iron chelation therapy in thalassemia
Since 1978, Dr. Giardina has collaborated with Robert W. Grady, Ph.D. to evaluate the long-term out-come of the subcutaneously administered iron chelator, Desferal. She has demonstrated that median survival has doubled since the introduction of Desferal in 1977. In addition, the research for an orally effective and safe iron chelator to supplement or replace Desferal is ongoing and near fruition. Drs. Grady and Giardina have conducted clincial trials evaluating iron balence on several promising new oral iron chelators: HBED, DMHP, S-DFO, GT56 and ICL670.
Currently, Dr. Giardina is the Principal Investigator of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded New York Region Thalassemia Clinical Research Center. Key research in thalassemia and the development of new therapies will be enhanced by the collaboration of physicians treating thalassemia in the greater New York metropolitan area and within the NIH North American Thalassemia Clinical Research Network. She has enlisted the collaboration of physicians in more than ten institutions in the New York area to develop a patient registry database which has identified nearly 200 thalassemia patients in the New York region. She has also finalized the first treatment protocol for the management of low bone mass in thalassemia for the North American Thalassemia Network. She has been an invited speaker and participant in NIH workshops on thalassemia, iron chelation and behavioral issues. She has also addressed the direction of funding and scope of health care services for thalassemic patients in the Health and Human Services Branch in the Department of Maternal and Child Health. She is a member of the medical advisory board of the Children's Blood Foundation (CBF), the Cooley's Anemia Foundation (CAF) and is a medical consultant to the Thalassemia International Federation (TIF). She participated in the TIF goodwill mission regarding thalassemia management in Buenos Aires in 2001.
She is developing a gene therapy research program for thalassemia in collaboration with Dr. Michel Sadelain, Director of the Gene Transfer Facility at MSKCC, and Stefano Rivella, PhD in the NYPH-WMC Thalassemia Center.
