Swee Lay Thein is a physician scientist renowned for her work on hemoglobin disorders. She joined the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute / NIH, US, in 2015 as Senior Investigator and Chief of the Sickle Cell Branch.
Dr Thein completed her specialist training in general medicine and hematology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and the Royal Free Hospital in London. Her interest in hemoglobin disorders began at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, where she held several positions, including MRC clinical training fellow and Wellcome Senior Fellow in clinical Science. In 2000, she became Professor of Molecular Hematology at King's College London, focusing her research on sickle cell disease. Her work was nominated by scientists as one of the top 10 science stories of 2022 by The Guardian. In 2024, she was co-recipient of the Shaw Prize in Life Sciences & Medicine on the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the fetal-to-adult hemoglobin switch. In 2025, she was inducted into the Association of American Physicians and awarded the Helen M. Ranney Award.
Professional position
- Senior Investigator and Chief, Sickle Cell Branch, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
