Dr. Semenza’s laboratory discovered, cloned, and characterized hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1), which is the founding member of a family of master regulators that direct transcriptional responses to decreased oxygen availability in virtually all metazoan species. His lab has shown that HIFs play important roles in cardiovascular disorders, cancer, COPD, diabetes, sleep apnea, transplant rejection, ocular neovascularization and hematologic disorders. Evolutionary selection of genetic variants at loci that encode HIF pathway components have been identified in Tibetan populations living at high altitude. HIF stabilizers and HIF inhibitors are currently in clinical trials for the treatment of anemia and cancer, respectively.