HO-1 has been shown to provide specific protection against heme toxicity in different animal models including mouse models of SCD (Belcher et al., 2006, 2010), malaria (Pamplona et al., 2007; Seixas et al., 2009) and rhabdomyolysis (Wei et al., 2011). Here, HMOX1 is linked to Schnyder corneal dystrophy.