DBAF Funds Our “Indispensable Steve”

The Diamond Blackfan Anemia Foundation (DBAF)  is pleased to support the hard work and research efforts of Steven R. Ellis, Ph.D. at the University of Louisville. Dr. Steve Ellis’ professional and personal commitment to DBA is immeasurable and deeply appreciated. Not only is Steve our dedicated (and unpaid) Research Director, who is working tirelessly behind the scenes, he also writes the DBAF’s e-newsletter monthly Journal Club and his laboratory provides valuable research support services to the wider DBA Community. The DBAF is excited and humbled to award $20,000 to Dr. Ellis to continue to provide experimental services to clinicians and scientists worldwide who are in need of his laboratory’s expertise in studying different aspects of ribosome synthesis relevant to DBA.Steve

Steve stated, “I greatly appreciate the DBAF’s support and encouragement, and look forward to being able to continue to provide support to the global DBA community.”

Adrianna Vlachos, M.D. is the Head of the Bone Marrow Failure Program at Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York, an Associate Professor at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, and the Director of the North American Diamond Blackfan Anemia Registry (DBAR). Dr. Vlachos commented,

“The Diamond Blackfan Anemia Registry has been associated with Dr. Steven Ellis since his first DBA meeting. He is an enthusiastic ribosome biologist who makes this complicated science understandable. His role in DBA has become indispensable since the majority of patients have genetic defects in one of their ribosomal proteins. The DBAR has been instrumental in finding new mutations causing DBA. This is accomplished with the specimens collected from DBA patients on their visits here at our center or those sent to us by their participating hematologists. But, how do we know if the new gene mutations that we find are truly causing the disease? Well – that is the question that Dr. Steven Ellis answers for us. Through his laboratory work, he can test the patient’s blood (in particular, the RNA) by profiling the ribosomes and seeing if there is a decrease in one of them. His work is invaluable to DBA research, in general and the DBAR, in particular.”

The DBAF is grateful to Dr. Steve Ellis for the integral roles he plays in researching DBA and in the lives of all DBA patients and their families. Thank you, Steve!