blood clots
Cool Videos: Heart Attack
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Up next in our scientific film fest is an original music video, straight from the Big Apple. Created by researchers at The Rockefeller University, this song-and-dance routine provides an entertaining—and informative—look at how blood clots form, their role in causing heart attacks, and what approaches are being tried to break up these clots.
Before (or after!) you hit “play,” it might help to take a few moments to review the scientists’ description of their efforts: the key to saving the lives of heart attack victims lies in the molecules that control how blood vessels become clogged. This molecular biomedicine music video explains how ischemic injury can be prevented shortly after heart attack symptoms begin: clot blocking. The science is the collaborative work of Dr. Barry Coller of Rockefeller, Dr. Craig Thomas and his colleagues at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and Dr. Marta Filizola and her Mount Sinai colleagues.
Links:
Laboratory of Blood and Vascular Biology, The Rockefeller University
Filizola Laboratory, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Center for Clinical and Translational Science, The Rockefeller University
Clinical and Translational Science Awards (NCATS/NIH)
NIH Common Fund Video Competition
NIH support: Common Fund; National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Cellular Shape-Shifters to the Rescue
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Caption: Angular red blood cells, called polyhedrocytes, held together by platelets (blue) and fibrin protein (yellow).
Credit: John Weisel, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Just as superheroes often change their forms to save the day, so it seems do red blood cells as they mobilize to heal a wound. Red blood cells usually look like oval, bi-concave discs, but NIH-funded researchers recently discovered that they are actually talented shape-shifters.
Gene Signature Predicts Aspirin Resistance
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Caption: New blood test of gene activity reveals who will respond to aspirin therapy and who won’t.
Source: Duke Medicine
About 60 million Americans take an aspirin a day to reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks. But for 10 to 30% of those who follow this recommendation, this preventive therapy turns out not to offer any protection. An NIH-funded team, based at Duke University Medical Center, has discovered a set of blood markers that predict who will benefit from aspirin therapy and who will not [1].
First of all, I’ve got to tell you that acetylsalicylic acid, the scientific name for aspirin, is a pretty amazing drug. German chemist Felix Hoffmann synthesized the first commercial form of the drug more than a hundred years ago to treat headaches, minor aches and pains, and fever—and we’re still discovering nuances about how the drug works, for whom, and for which diseases.
