Transplants

Even though Neal Jeffries’s father was a high-school math teacher, he studied only enough mathematics to earn a degree in economics. However, while working as a policy analyst, he realized statistics was necessary to critically evaluate the data that provides the basis for sound public policy—and that understanding led him to want a formal statistics education. Now, at the National Institutes of Health, Jeffries’s work involves advances in treating sickle cell anemia by expanding the pool of those who can receive curative stem cell transplants and developing new avenues of therapy.