{"id":7128,"date":"2026-04-06T13:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/?p=7128"},"modified":"2026-04-21T10:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:24:12","slug":"dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"https:\/\/start.emailopen.com\/public1\/r.aspx?s1=6946831&amp;s2=Qf89Zmd4R3WxNs6&amp;s4=618854&amp;s5=8818bf40a9de43219310fbc70e418f4erKWlRZKafOWBrEZ.1130175623@emailopen.com\" href=\"https:\/\/start.emailopen.com\/public1\/r.aspx?s1=6946831&amp;s2=Qf89Zmd4R3WxNs6&amp;s4=618854&amp;s5=8818bf40a9de43219310fbc70e418f4erKWlRZKafOWBrEZ.1130175623@emailopen.com\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"16\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Dr. Erica Sparkenbaugh<\/a>\u00a0was awarded the UNC School of Medicine Office of Research Translational Team Science Award (TTSA) pilot grant for her application titled \u201cHypoxemia-Induced Platelet Activation in Sickle Cell Disease Pregnancy: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets\u201d. The team includes\u00a0Drs. Erica Sparkenbaugh and Mofiyin Obadina from the Department of Medicine.\u00a0<span class=\"markic2r8q7f6 uM2yb\" data-markjs=\"true\">Congratulations<\/span>\u00a0Dr. Sparkenbaugh!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Erica Sparkenbaugh\u00a0was awarded the UNC School of Medicine Office of Research Translational Team Science Award (TTSA) pilot grant for her application titled \u201cHypoxemia-Induced Platelet Activation in Sickle Cell Disease Pregnancy: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets\u201d. The team includes\u00a0Drs. Erica Sparkenbaugh and Mofiyin Obadina from the Department of Medicine.\u00a0Congratulations\u00a0Dr. Sparkenbaugh!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117184,"featured_media":4785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award | UNC Blood Research Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award | UNC Blood Research Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Erica Sparkenbaugh\u00a0was awarded the UNC School of Medicine Office of Research Translational Team Science Award (TTSA) pilot grant for her application titled \u201cHypoxemia-Induced Platelet Activation in Sickle Cell Disease Pregnancy: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets\u201d. The team includes\u00a0Drs. Erica Sparkenbaugh and Mofiyin Obadina from the Department of Medicine.\u00a0Congratulations\u00a0Dr. Sparkenbaugh!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UNC Blood Research Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-06T17:26:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-21T14:24:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"martimic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"martimic\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"martimic\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#\/schema\/person\/34aa2e69041ab767074ddc2afa2e672d\"},\"headline\":\"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-06T17:26:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-21T14:24:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/\"},\"wordCount\":59,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/\",\"name\":\"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award | UNC Blood Research Center\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-06T17:26:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-21T14:24:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#\/schema\/person\/34aa2e69041ab767074ddc2afa2e672d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":1707,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"Photo of smiling woman, wearing a blue blouse\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/\",\"name\":\"UNC Blood Research Center\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#\/schema\/person\/34aa2e69041ab767074ddc2afa2e672d\",\"name\":\"martimic\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf0386d60ba440da0e2453decd8535f25cd6d42b52d95ccae93a7d89f7097176?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf0386d60ba440da0e2453decd8535f25cd6d42b52d95ccae93a7d89f7097176?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"martimic\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/author\/martimic\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award | UNC Blood Research Center","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award | UNC Blood Research Center","og_description":"Dr. Erica Sparkenbaugh\u00a0was awarded the UNC School of Medicine Office of Research Translational Team Science Award (TTSA) pilot grant for her application titled \u201cHypoxemia-Induced Platelet Activation in Sickle Cell Disease Pregnancy: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets\u201d. The team includes\u00a0Drs. Erica Sparkenbaugh and Mofiyin Obadina from the Department of Medicine.\u00a0Congratulations\u00a0Dr. Sparkenbaugh!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/","og_site_name":"UNC Blood Research Center","article_published_time":"2026-04-06T17:26:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-21T14:24:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1707,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"martimic","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"martimic","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/"},"author":{"name":"martimic","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#\/schema\/person\/34aa2e69041ab767074ddc2afa2e672d"},"headline":"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award","datePublished":"2026-04-06T17:26:14+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-21T14:24:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/"},"wordCount":59,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/","name":"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award | UNC Blood Research Center","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-06T17:26:14+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-21T14:24:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#\/schema\/person\/34aa2e69041ab767074ddc2afa2e672d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg","width":1707,"height":2560,"caption":"Photo of smiling woman, wearing a blue blouse"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/2026\/04\/dr-erica-sparkenbaugh-receives-ttsa-award\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD receives TTSA Award"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/","name":"UNC Blood Research Center","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#\/schema\/person\/34aa2e69041ab767074ddc2afa2e672d","name":"martimic","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf0386d60ba440da0e2453decd8535f25cd6d42b52d95ccae93a7d89f7097176?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf0386d60ba440da0e2453decd8535f25cd6d42b52d95ccae93a7d89f7097176?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"martimic"},"url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/author\/martimic\/"}]}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-scaled.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-200x300.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-768x1152.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-683x1024.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1089\/2022\/10\/Erica-Sparkenbaugh-Headshot-150x150.jpg","featured_image_alt":"Photo of smiling woman, wearing a blue blouse","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7160,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions\/7160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/bloodresearchcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}