Dr. Eldad Hod Awarded 2.9M by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of NIH
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Dr. Eldad Hod with $2,935,453 over four years to determine if iron deficiency in frequent whole blood donors adversely affects their neurocognitive function.
Over 15 million red blood cell units are donated annually in the United States. Despite fulfilling all requirements for blood donation almost two-thirds of the women, and half of the men, who are regular blood donors are iron deficient. The overall intent of this study is, in Dr. Hod's words, to develop a chain of evidence linking iron repletion in iron-deficient donors to (i) increases of iron in specific brain structures to (ii) improved processing of speed and memory with improved efficiency and connectivity in related functional networks by functional MRI to (iii) improved performance on neurocognitive testing.
Congratulations to Dr. Hod on this remarkable award!