Akshay Sharma is a clinician-scientist in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at Memphis TN. He graduated from medical school at Kasturba Medical College in India and then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University before completing his pediatrics residency at the University of Kentucky and a pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship at St. Jude. His pre-clinical research focused on understanding the genetic regulation of fetal hemoglobin and his clinical research continues to translate that work developing novel transplant and gene therapy clinical trials for patients with sickle cell disease. He leads several clinical trials of genetic and cellular therapies for non malignant hematological disorders and is an expert in development of novel gene editing therapeutics. He is passionate about developing curative therapies for hemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease, as well as improving access to these novel therapies in an equitable and patient-centered manner.