Narrator: This is Science Today. A key finding may provide new approaches for the treatment of anemia. Dr. Victor Nizet, a professor of pediatrics and pharmacy at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine says they found a protein called HIF that regulates hepcidin, a small protein made in the liver that controls the iron stores in the body.

Nizet: And therefore, provides us a way to modify hepcidin levels that are sometimes abnormal in the body - back into a normal, functional range that can help patients maintain normal iron stores and appropriate blood counts and avoid developing anemia and the complications that accompany it.

Narrator: Anemia affects the majority of patients suffereing from chronic infections, cancer or inflammatory disease and high levels of hepcidin leads to poor iron absorption.

Nizet: So by finding a clue to how the body regulates hepcidin, we offer a way to correct abnormalities in the patient.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.