He is also the Chief of the institute's Molecular and Clinical Hematology Branch and is known for contributions to research and therapy for sickle cell anemia.

In 2006, he assumed the directorship on an acting basis and this position was made permanent in 2007 by the NIH's director at the time, Elias Zerhouni.

[3] Rodgers is a physician-scientist who studies diseases of bone marrow and is best known for his work on the molecular genetics of hemoglobinopathies and on developing a treatment for sickle cell anemia.

[6] A 2009 study, published under the mentorship of Griffin P. Rodgers, discovered that in human erythrocytes (peripheral blood CD34+ cells), the stem cell factor (SCF) induces γ-globin gene expression by regulating downstream transcription factor COUP-TFII, which can be a crucial molecular mechanism that has the potential for the development of effective pharmacologic strategies for treatment of patients with sickle cell disease or other β-hemoglobinopathies.

[8] The 2015 study concludes that "we were unable to provide evidence for COUP-TFII expression under any in vivo or in vitro culture condition from human or mouse adult erythroid cells, confirming previous microarray, as well as RNA-seq studies.