Dr. Marie-Dominique Hardy-Dessources is a biochemist who has worked with the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) for more than 30 years. She has been interested in sickle cell disease since her PhD undertaken at the Inserm Unit 91 at Henri Mondor Hospital in Créteil and defended at the Pharmaceutical Department of University Paris Sud, Chatenay-Malabry. She joined the team led by Dr. Guy Mérault in Guadeloupe and participated with him in the creation of the first French Sickle Cell Center in Guadeloupe.
Currently, she works at Unit 1134 Inserm/ Université de Paris/Université des Antilles, a two-location research Unit based in Paris and Guadeloupe. Her research interests include basic laboratory studies and implementation science and prioritize the study of the mechanisms of activation of the red blood cell leading to vaso-occlusive crises; the relationships between the severity of sickle cell disease and factors such as blood rheological alterations, cellular inflammation and oxidation. She has published more than one hundred papers in peer-reviewed journals (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0861-3648).
Dr. Hardy-Dessources is one of the founding members of Caribbean Network for Research in Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia (CAREST), and President of the Board since the creation of this network in 2012.