Patrick Charles Hines, MD/PhD
Founder and CEO, Functional Fluidics
Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Dr. Hines has spent over 20 years investigating the mechanisms regulating microvascular blood flow in sickle cell disease, including sickle erythrocyte adhesion, leukocyte rolling, and platelet function. He has authored numerous publications in this field and was among the first to describe the ability of soluble stress mediators to rapidly increase adhesive properties of sickle erythrocytes, advancing our understanding of how stress induces microvascular blood flow changes in individuals with sickle cell disease. He is internationally recognized for his efforts to develop and validate a gold standard for the assessment of red blood cell health in clinical practice, work that grew out of patient care challenges he experienced as a pediatric intensivist.
In 2014, Dr. Hines founded Functional Fluidics, a biotech company developing red blood cell health diagnostic platforms that are currently being used by some of largest medical centers in the U.S. and the majority of pharmaceutical companies developing red blood cell-modifying therapies. Functional Fluidics has validated the first blood-based biomarkers shown to predict vaso-occlusive crises in sickle cell disease and can be used to monitor patient response to red blood cell modifying therapies. Dr. Hines and his team are using red blood cell function biomarkers to identify early changes in red blood cell health, helping healthcare providers to intervene earlier, and focus on health maintenance rather than crises management. He is also leading an effort to validate the role of red blood cell function in congenital heart disease, diabetic vasculopathy, and aerobic capacity in high performance athletes, and has received NIH support to better understand the importance of RBC health for patients on ECMO and ventricular assist devices, validate predictive biomarkers of preterm birth and low birth weight, and assess storage lesions in blood banked RBCs.
Most recently, his team has started to explore the relationship of red blood cell health to long haul COVID-19 affecting millions of individuals around the world. In recognition of his work, Dr. Hines was selected as an Aspen Health Innovation Fellow within the Aspen Global Leadership Network, chosen as a Crain’s Healthcare Hero, and received the Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40 award, an honor rarely given to physician leaders. He completed both his fellowship in critical care medicine and pediatrics residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He received his M.D. degree and Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Hampton University.
