The National Bleeding Disorders Foundation (NBDF) has announced the 2026 recipients of its Judith Graham Pool (JGP) Fellowships. This year's awardees are investigating next-generation hemophilia A gene therapy and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), a rare inherited bleeding disorder caused by abnormal blood vessel development. The fellowships fund early-career researchers investigating the causes and treatment of bleeding disorders through basic science and pre-clinical research.
Basic science is investigation into bleeding disorders at the biological level, studying mechanisms such as how blood clots, how the immune system responds, and how inhibitors develop. Pre-clinical research investigates potential treatments before they reach the human clinical trial stage. Investment in this early research helps increase our understanding of bleeding disorders, paves the way for safe and effective bleeding disorders treatment, and supports emerging researchers early in their careers. Each investigator is awarded up to $52,000 a year for two years.
The Judith Graham Pool Postdoctoral Research Fellowship was awarded to Aabid Hussain, PhD. Dr. Hussain received his Ph.D. from West Bengal State University, India. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Bin Zhang’s laboratory in the Department of Genomic Sciences and Systems Biology at Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He will investigate the use of bioengineered FVIII with improved secretion for next-generation hemophilia A gene therapy applications. His goal is to achieve strong, consistent, and long-lasting FVIII levels using lower doses of virus. If successful, this project could lead to safer and more durable gene therapy options for people living with hemophilia A.
Dr. Bin Zhang was a recipient of a Judith Graham Pool Fellowship in 2001, studying protein secretion of factor V and VIII, and NBDF’s Career Development Award in 2004. “The JGP Fellowship gave me the funding to establish my own independent lab to continue this line of research,” he said in 2022. In recent years, his laboratory has used their knowledge of FVIII translational and post-translational regulation to develop novel therapeutics to treat hemophilia A.
The second JGP Fellowship, named in honor of Dr. Abdullah Kutlar, was awarded to Mathias Blanc, Ph
D. Dr. Blanc earned a master’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, and a PhD in biomedicine from the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Loh Laboratory at Stanford University. With the support of NBDF’s fellowship, he will test whether arteries in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) patients are structurally weak because their artery cells never fully strengthen. This could open the door to new treatments that help artery cells complete their strengthening process, preventing bleeding.
HHT is a rare inheritable bleeding disorder, but unlike hemophilia or von Willebrand disease, it is not caused by a defective or missing clotting protein; but rather by abnormally developed blood vessels that are fragile and prone to bleeding. People with HHT experience nosebleeds, easy bruising, low iron, and heavy menstrual bleeding. While it is estimated to affect 1 in 5,000 people in the US, it is often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. NBDF’s support of this line of investigation is illustrative of the organization’s commitment to finding better treatments for rare and underdiagnosed bleeding disorders.
NBDF’s JGP Postdoctoral Research Fellowships are funded by generous contributions from NBDF chapters, individuals, and other foundations. The National Bleeding Disorders Foundation is especially grateful to Hemophilia of Georgia, which provided funding the Dr. Abdullah Kutlar Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and named the fellowship in his honor.
