New York Man Cured Of Sickle Cell Anemia Using Innovative Stem Cell Therapy

This is huge!

Sebastien Beauzile, 21, has been cured of sickle cell anemia, according to his doctors at Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center.

Beauzile received a new gene therapy called Lyfgeni, created by the biotech company Bluebird Bio. Beauzile, who suffered from chronic pain for most of his life, received the treatment in December 2024. Since then, he has not had any symptoms of sickle cell anemia, which led doctors to determine he is cured of the disease.

“We feel blessed to be the first to be able to offer this,” Dr. Jonathan Fish of Cohen Children’s Medical Center, told WCBS.

Beauzile said he’s grateful for his better quality of life, which allows him to travel and focus on his educational and career goals. Beauzile plans to pursue a career in the medical field.

“Sickle cell was like a blockade for me—now it’s like a wall that I just jumped over,” Beauzile said.

According to his mother, Magda Lamour, Beauzile has been a patient at Cohen Children’s Medical Center since he was two-months-old. Lamour expressed her gratitude to the medical staff for providing this groundbreaking treatment to her son.

Dr. Jeffrey Lipton, chief of hematology and oncology at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, noted that modern medicine books have mentioned sickle cell disease since 1910. More than 100 years later, he believes a cure has been found .

Sickle cell anemia is a severe inherited disorder that prevents hemoglobin in red blood cells from carrying oxygen to all body parts. The condition can lead to anemia, chronic pain, blood clots, organ damage, and other complications.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 100,000 people live with the disease in the United States. Sickle cell anemia primarily affects Black and Hispanic people. Cohen Children’s Medical Center aims to focus on these communities when offering this potentially life-saving treatment.