For over 25 years, Adeyinka Gladys Falusi has been studying molecular genetics related to heredity blood diseases common to Nigerians, such as thalassaemia and sickle cell disease. Her research has been instrumental in opening the way to prevention of these diseases through prenatal diagnosis. Thalassaemia is a genetic blood disorder whereby the blood cells are unable to carry a sufficient supply of oxygen for the body's needs. The bone marrow cannot produce normal red blood cells, the heart and other organs fail due to lack of oxygen, patients look pale and feel tired all the time, and, if not treated, the patient can die, usually between 1 to 8 years old. Thalassaemia only happens when the parents passed down the gene to their children.
Parents are the carriers.
The fundamental abnormality in thalassemia is impaired production of either the alpha or beta hemoglobin chain. Thalassemia is a difficult subject to explain, since the condition is not a single disorder, but a group of defects with similar clinical effects. More confusion comes from the fact that the clinical descriptions of thalassemia were coined before the molecular basis of the thalassemias were uncovered. As a result, the organizational structure is somewhat disorderly. Review of thalassemia is best approached by separately examining its genetic basis and clinical expression.