Leading the Fight: Dr. Kenneth Ataga’s Mission to Advance Sickle Cell Care

When Kenneth Ataga, MD, talks about his work, his focus is always on his patients. He has spent more than two decades caring for people with sickle cell disease and searching for better treatments for the condition that often causes unpredictable pain, threatens organs, and shortens lives.

"I was attracted to medicine because I wanted to help people," says Dr. Ataga, the Plough Foundation Endowed Chair in Sickle Cell Disease, director of the Center for Sickle Cell Disease, and chief of Hematology at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences College of Medicine. "When I began to understand sickle cell disease and how it affects every aspect of a person's life, I knew this was where I could make a difference."

Dr. Ataga grew up in Nigeria, which has the highest number of people living with sickle cell disease in the world. He says he didn't go to medical school planning to specialize in hematology or sickle cell disease. His original goal was to become a cardiologist.

"When I moved to the U.S. many years ago and started my residency training in Syracuse, New York, I realized that I no longer liked cardiology quite that much," he says. "But the place where I trained had a very good group of hematologists and oncologists, and it was very easy to be inspired to want to be like them."

During his training at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, he met the late Eugene Orringer, MD, who became a mentor and helped shape his career. "He was a hematologist who focused on sickle cell disease, and he pretty much changed my life," Dr. Ataga says. "His enthusiasm was so infectious that I chose to go to Chapel Hill to work with him."

At Chapel Hill, Dr. Ataga dedicated his clinical and research fellowship, and later his faculty career, to advancing care and understanding of sickle cell disease. He rose to the rank of tenured professor and served as director of the UNC Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program. While his initial interest in Memphis came from a career opportunity for his wife, the city's large sickle cell population helped him decide to make the move in 2018.

"I knew that if I was going to leave Chapel Hill and go someplace else, it had to be a place where I could take care of patients but also perform the research I do," he says.

At UT Health Sciences, Dr. Ataga leads a team that provides care for patients across the region at the university's partner hospitals, including the Regional One Health Diggs-Kraus Sickle Cell Clinic and the Methodist Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center. His focus is on improving patient outcomes, expanding access to care, and developing new treatments.

"Patients with sickle cell disease experience lots of challenges, typically from when they are very young," he says. "They have unpredictable episodes of pain, which are often referred to as pain crisis, and they experience fatigue. Sickle cell disease can affect pretty much every organ system, so patients are at risk of complications such as stroke, lung problems, kidney problems, and they have a shorter life expectancy than the general population, about 48 years on average. There just aren't adequate treatments to help prolong their survival to match the general population."

"We try and provide medical care to help them (patients) live as normal a life as possible. That's always the goal."

Over the years, Dr. Ataga has become an international leader in sickle cell research and treatment. He served as the lead investigator on the clinical trial for crizanlizumab, a drug now approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce pain crises in people with sickle cell disease.

"I presented the initial results at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in front of thousands of people," he says. "Whenever I read that paper, I'm always pleased that I played a small role in making this drug available for patients, but I'm also reminded that we have a lot more work to do."

Dr. Ataga's team continues to be involved in several clinical studies and trials aimed at developing new therapies that can make the disease less severe. While some sickle cell patients can be cured through bone marrow transplant or gene therapy, most do not have access to those options due to the financial burden or health risks. Instead, their conditions are managed with medications to improve their quality of life and hopefully increase life expectancy.

"We do the best that we can. We want to be available as doctors who understand the problems they have and be advocates for these patients as well," he says. "So, we try and provide medical care to help them live as normal a life as possible. That's always the goal."

While he has led successful studies and trials, Dr. Ataga is proudest of his ability to help patients regain stability and independence. He remembers one patient who was struggling through college because of his illness. Thanks in part to medical management by Dr. Ataga and his team, he not only finished college, but he went to medical school and now works as a sickle cell researcher and advocate.

"We often have patients referred to us because they have been experiencing lots of complications from their disease," he says. "Then they come see us, we start them on disease modifying therapies, and they get better. They get well enough that they're able to go to school or go to work sustainably, and that changes their lives."

After more than two decades as a hematologist, Dr. Ataga says his patients have also taught him a great deal. "It gives you patience," he says. "Because they have pain as a common manifestation of their disease, and that's not something you can objectively measure, it helps you to be even more empathetic. You have to believe them."

Much like Dr. Orringer was to him, Dr. Ataga tries to be a visible mentor for younger faculty as well as students, residents, and fellows who rotate through his clinics and research programs. He often invites students to work with him, and many have served as co-authors on papers. "I think they find it gratifying," he says. He hopes the next generation of physicians will continue to push the field forward and make improvements for patients.

"What gives me hope are the people who come after us," he says. "I think about the enthusiasm that they have and the fact that they want to improve on the work that has already been done in the sickle cell space. That's what give me hope."

This story was initially featured in the winter 2026 issue of Medicine magazine.