ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2025
The Young Physician-Scientist Awards (YPSA) recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
About the awardee
Eugene Khandros, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and an attending physician in the Division of Hematology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Khandros obtained his MD and PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His thesis research in the laboratory of Mitchell J. Weiss defined the role of protein quality control pathways in the production of hemoglobin in healthy and diseased red blood cells. He then completed his Pediatrics residency at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr Khandros’ postdoctoral research in the epigenetics laboratory of Gerd A. Blobel focused on the reactivation of fetal hemoglobin expression in adult red blood cell precursors, which is protective in sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemias. Specifically, Dr. Khandros worked to answer a 70-year old question of why only a subset of adult erythrocytes are able to express both fetal and adult hemoglobin. Dr. Khandros started his laboratory in the Division of Hematology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2022. He studies epigenetic mechanisms regulating red blood cell gene expression and hemoglobin synthesis, with the goal of developing new therapeutic approaches for red blood cell disorders such as thalassemia and sickle cell disease.