When was sickle cell disease discovered?
Sickle cell disease has probably been recognized for centuries in African tribal medicine. However, sickle cell disease was first recognized in Western medicine in 1910 by Dr. B. Herrick when he wrote a report about a patient who suffered from a “strange disease” that included such symptoms as pain, asthmatic conditions, and blood flow problems including body ulcers. This observation eventually led to the identification of the sickle cell hemoglobin (HbS) in the 1940s by Linus Pauling. In 1952, Pauling hypothesized on the nature of HbS and its role in sickle cell anemia by saying that the HbS proteins may act differently from regular hemoglobin (HbA) and stack together. Pauling also stated that sickling of the cells in sickle cell anemia might be due to the formation of “rods” by the hemoglobin and thus “sickle” the cell. From these hypotheses and experiments a physical understanding of sickle cell disease was formed. The physical mapping of the hemoglobin gene and protein allowed it t
