The scientist thinking past the breakthrough

In the tribal communities of Odisha and the plains of Gujarat, a disease has traveled quietly through bloodlines for centuries, unannounced and largely unaddressed. Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder in which misshapen red blood cells obstruct vessels, starve tissues of oxygen, and ignite episodes of excruciating pain. It affects an estimated 40,000 newborns in India every year. For most of them, the question has never been whether a cure exists. It has been whether one would ever reach them.

That question is now, for the first time in a generation, beginning to feel answerable.