The Shi Lab focuses on both basic and applied sciences of red blood cell biology. Our first aim is to investigate RBC development, which may have profound implications for treatments of anemia. Indeed, one third of the world’s population suffers from anemia with enormous health and economic consequences. Despite available pharmaceuticals, RBC transfusion is still the only way to treat severe anemic patients caused by chronic cancer, infectious diseases and genetic disorders. The increased blood demands stress the public supplies. Therefore, the lab’s goal is to determine the regulatory mechanism governing RBC development as a prerequisite to develop anti-anemia therapies.

Our second aim is to engineer RBCs as vascular carriers for therapeutic agents. Using RBCs as drug carriers may resolve critical issues associated with drug delivery including poor solubility, poor stability, short half-life, toxicity and availability. RBCs possess many unique characteristics, including no genetic materials and long survival time (>120 days) that make them attractive candidates for vascular delivery of therapeutic cargoes. Our goal is to engineer RBCs as cell-based carriers for therapeutic agents. This technology opens a new avenue for vascular drug delivery, which could potentially be useful for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases.