Anemia

In general, anemia is a condition that occurs when a person’s blood lacks red blood cells or hemoglobin. The most common type of anemia is caused by iron deficiency, and can be treated with iron supplements. However, Thalassemia is a heritable form of anemia which caused by mutations in hemoglobin. Wild type hemoglobin consists of four different subunits, two alpha chains and two beta chains, which are each conjugated to a heme group. People with thalassemia anemia have mutations in the genes that  code for alpha or beta chains, which results in malformed hemoglobin molecules with fewer heme groups. Depending on the number of nonfunctional genes, the oxygen capacity of red blood cells can be reduced to the point that the person cannot survive without regular blood transfusions.