Swee Lay Thein is a hematologist and clinical investigator with more than 30 years of clinical and translational hematology research and extensive personal experience in laboratory research – molecular biology, genetics and genomics. Dr. Thein currently serves as a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Sickle Cell Branch within the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Her current goal is to find more drugs for treating SCD, and to one day discover a way to quickly preempt excruciating sickle cell crises, breaking the cycle of pain.