Sally Stabler, MD
Hematology
Locations
Practice Locations
UCHealth Hematology Clinic - Anschutz Medical Campus
720-848-0300
UCHealth Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion - Anschutz Medical Campus
720-848-0000
Provider Expertise
Clinical Interest for Patients
I am interested in anemia, cytopenias, chronic leukemias, myeloproliferative diseases and congenital bleeding disorders.
Specialties
- Medical Oncology ( 1983 )
- Hematology ( 1984 )
- Internal Medicine ( 1982 )
Conditions & Treatments
-
Blood / Lymphatic System
Bleeding Disorders
Interests & Activities
Personal Interests
Dr. Stabler completed her bachelor’s degree at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana followed by medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She completed Internal Medicine Internship and Residency in Houston at Baylor Affiliated Hospitals and then moved to Denver for a Fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology. After one year as a clinical fellow she pursued three years as a research fellow partially funded by the award of an individual fellowship from the NIH. In 1984 she was appointed Instructor in Medicine, Division of Hematology and also became the Adult Hemophilia Care Coordinator for the Mountain States Regional Hemophilia and Thrombosis Program. Further promotions followed to Assistant Professor in 1986; Associate Professor with award of Tenure in 1992 and she became the Co-Division Head of Hematology in 1998, which from which she stepped down in 2013. She received the Cleo Scott and Mitchell Vincent Allen Endowed Chair in Hematology Research in 2004 and was promoted to Professor of Medicine in 2005. She has had an NIH and endowment-funded research laboratory during the last 33 years. She is the co-inventor on nine patents dealing with diagnosis and treatment of folate and vitamin B12 deficiency. She has been an invited expert and/or speaker for many national workshops and panels pertaining to folic acid and vitamin B12 nutrition policy and measurement of relevant metabolites. She is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and review articles. Most recently she published a Clinical Practice article in the New England Journal of Medicine on vitamin B12 deficiency. She plays an active role in the combined Hematology – Oncology Fellowship Program including the selection, evaluation, didactic and supervisory teaching of 10-12 fellows. She helped in the design of the first year medical student curriculum and teaches them on the pathophysiology of hematologic disorders in lectures and small group sessions. She has mentored PhD students and Post-Doc fellows in successful research collaborations resulting in numerous publications both at the University of Colorado and at other institutions. She has a long association with the Mountain States Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center and oversees the care of many of the adult hemophilia patients in a four-state region. She is a member of the Western Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Society of Hematology. She is the past chairman of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for the University of Colorado, she has served on the Vice Chancellor’s Advisory Committee. She was the Chair of the Post-Tenure Review Committee for the Department of Medicine for five years.
Education & Training
Medical Schools
MD, Baylor College of Medicine (1978)
Undergraduate Schools
BS, Earlham College (IN) (1975)
Internships
Baylor College of Medicine Program (1979)
Residency Program
Baylor College of Medicine Program (1981)
Fellowships
University of Colorado (1982)
University of Colorado (1984)
Professional Memberships
American Federation for Clinical Research, Member
American Society of Hematology, Member
Western Society for Clinical Investigation, Member
Research & Grants
Research Interests for Patients
My research focuses on: - Anemia - Cytopenias - Chronic leukemias - Myeloproliferative diseases - Congenital bleeding disorders - Hematology - Internal medicine - Medical oncology
information for referring providers
Referral Contact Phone
(720) 848-0300
Referral Contact Fax
720-848-1786
Clinical Interests for Referring Providers
I am interested in megaloblastic anemias, homocysteine, vitamin B12 and folate deficiency, general hematology, hematology-congenital and acquired bleeding diathesis. Key Words: Bleeding, anemia, thrombocytopenia
Research Interest for Referring Providers
Dr. Stabler began her research career in the laboratory of Robert H. Allen, M.D. at the University of Colorado Medical School studying enzymes in vitamin B12-dependent pathways. Together they made the discoveries that homocysteine was a sensitive and specific marker of both vitamin B12 and folate deficiency and that methylmalonic acid elevations could be used to distinguish between the two deficiencies. Over the past three-decades, Drs. Stabler has pursued most aspects of folate, vitamins B12 and B6 and methionine metabolism in the laboratory and in clinical studies. The highly sensitive and specific stable isotope dilution gas chromatography/mass spectrometry assays developed in the hematology laboratories have been used to study animal models of vitamin deficiency, genetic knock-outs or perturbed metabolism as well as large cohorts of patients studied in collaboration with many national and even international groups. Use of these assays have shown that the serum vitamin levels are much less sensitive and specific than widely recognized, and that the pattern of clinical abnormalities in B12 deficiency is broader than expected. She has also developed sensitive and specific liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry assays for S-adenosylhomocysteine and S-adenosylmethionine and studied these in both animal and human models of perturbed vitamin metabolism. Her studies of methionine metabolism have ranged from stroke, markers of frailty and cognition in seniors, O2 induced lung damage, inflammatory bowel disease, vascular diseases, effects of homocysteine-lowering agents and cancer susceptibility in large cohorts, to name a few. She demonstrated that large doses of commonly used supplements such as alpha-lipoic acid caused rapid depletion of S-adenosylmethionine and increases in S-adenosylhomocysteine, the inhibitor of many important methylation reactions. Dr. Stabler had a long-standing collaboration with S. Harvey Mudd of the NIH until his passing in 2014. During this 15-year collaboration she used her panel of methionine metabolites to help pinpoint the abnormalities in known inborn errors of methionine metabolism but also helped describe two other new disorders; glycine N-methyltransferase deficiency and S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase deficiency. The pattern of methionine-related metabolites was also demonstrated in more common disorders such as methionine adenosyl-transferase deficiency, cystathionine-beta synthase deficiency, cystathionase deficiency and in disorders not directly related to methionine metabolism such as DGUOK and other mitochondrial DNA deficiency disorders. Dr. Stabler has participated in the diagnosis and follow-up of many patients with inborn errors of folate, vitamin B12 and methionine metabolism through direct measurement of the relative metabolites in patient samples and providing interpretations on baseline and follow-up samples. Many of these lab assays are not available as diagnostic tests and the clinicians in metabolic clinics approach her directly for help in diagnosis. Dr. Stabler has recently developed a stable isotope assay for 2-hydroxy-glutarate, a metabolite that can be used as a marker of IDH mutations commonly found in malignant disease. Dr. Stabler has developed assays for free fatty acids that can be measured in body fluids and feces in models such as inflammatory bowel disease.
