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| Name |
Eaton, William A. |
| Location
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National Institutes of Health |
| Primary Field
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Biophysics and Computational Biology |
| Secondary Field
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Chemistry |
 Election Citation
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Eaton's spectroscopic experiments form the foundation for investigations of protein conformational dynamics and allostery. His studies of sickle-cell hemoglobin greatly advanced our molecular understanding of sickle-cell disease and motivated new therapeutic approaches. His laser-triggering experiments revealed the time scales and mechanisms of the initial events in protein folding. |
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Research Interests
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Dr. Eaton has almost completely stopped his research on protein folding and hemoglobin allostery to focus on drug treatment for sickle cell disease. There have been tremendous advances recently in curative treatments of sickle cell disease by stem cell transplantation and gene therapy However, such treatments require advanced medical facilities, which are not available to the more than 95% of patients in the world suffering from sickle cell disease who live in under-resourced counties, such as in sub-Saharan Africa or regions of India. The goal of the Eaton lab is to discover an inexpensive oral drug from screening large compound libraries with a high throughput kinetic assay, based on his former discoveries of nucleated sickle hemoglobin polymerization, that is directly relevant to the pathophysiology. (see William A. Eaton and H. Franklin Bunn. ""Treating sickle cell disease by targeting HbS polymerization"". Blood 129, 2719-2726 (2017). His lab is also collaborating on clinical drug trials with NIH hematologists by monitoring sickling properties of patient's blood |
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