Skip to main content
FSCDR's 17th Annual SCD Research and Educational Symposium & 46th Nat'l SCD Scientific Meeting Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Live Stream
Live Stream
Back

Biree Andemariam, MD

Professor of Medicine
New England Sickle Cell Institute, University of Connecticut Health, Farmington, CT, USA
University of Connecticut Health
Farmington, Connecticut, United States

Biree Andemariam, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine and the American Red Cross Endowed Chair in Transfusion Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is a physician-scientist at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine (UConn) in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Founding Director of the New England Sickle Cell Institute (NESCI), and Director of the Connecticut Bleeding Disorders Center. Dr. Andemariam joined UConn in 2007 as a physician-investigator with a passion to serve the underserved. Following her observation of the marked national disparity in care between those with sickle cell disease and those with other blood disorders or cancers, she swiftly established the region’s only adult sickle cell disease (SCD) program. NESCI provides a state-of-the-art medical home for adults with SCD as well as a transition destination for young adults with SCD who have aged out of pediatric care. This transition program boasts a 99% success rate, the largest reported in the U.S. In addition to treating over 350 adults with SCD, the center is also home to numerous clinical and translational research studies. Dr. Andemariam’s research has focused on two areas: defining intracellular signaling pathways between red cell adhesion to endothelial proteins in the genesis of sickle vaso-occlusion and developing/implementing care pathways that lead to improved patient outcomes and health resource utilization. She has extensive global research collaborations as well as clinical and advocacy networks. Dr. Andemariam has been the lead principal investigator of 3 global SCD clinical trials and two registry studies. She has extensive experience in clinical trial design, development of primary and secondary endpoints, data safety and monitoring, patient/community engagement, and post-marketing awareness and educational strategies. Dr. Andemariam is an investigator on several extramurally funded grants that include the American Society of Hematology Research Collaborative, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Connecticut Department of Public Health. In the midst of the COVID-19 global crisis, she mobilized and chaired an international committee of experts in the development and timely worldwide dissemination of guidelines on managing patients with SCD during the pandemic. Dr. Andemariam was Chief Medical Officer of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. (2016-2020) and has continuously served on the Board of Directors since 2011. During her service at the SCDAA, she has been awarded the Chairman’s Award three times (2019, 2020, 2022) for her outstanding and dedicated board service largely centered around national programmatic development, disease education and awareness, legislative advocacy, corporate fundraising, and media engagement. Born in Ethiopia and raised in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, she earned her undergraduate degree in molecular biology and African studies from Princeton University and her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine, graduating with research honors. She completed her medical training in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology at New York Presbyterian Hospital–Cornell University. Dr. Andemariam is only the second black woman to earn the rank of full professor in the UConn School of Medicine’s 52-year history.




Disclosure information not submitted.

Presentation(s):