Abstract
In this issue of Blood, Hahn and Lowrey have identified phosphorylation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) as a novel mechanism for the post-transcriptional induction of fetal hemoglobin (HbF). Furthermore, they demonstrate that this eIF2αP-mediated pathway works synergistically with 2 clinical therapeutics, azacytidine and hydroxyurea (HU), to induce higher levels of HbF than any single agent alone.