For 21 years, Sebastien Beauzile lived with the chronic pain of sickle cell anemia. Now, thanks to a groundbreaking genetic treatment, he is the first person in New York to be cured of the disease. "Sickle cell was like a blockade for me,

Credit: Artur Plawgo / Science Photo Library via A 21-year-old man has become the first person in New York—and one of the first in the world—to be cured of sickle cell anemia. A novel form of gene therapy enabled the man to receive a life-changing blood transfusion using his own stem cells in December.

NY resident Sebastien Beauzile was treated with a pioneering new gene therapy approach called Lyfgenia, curing his sickle cell anemia.