PIs: Ashley Brown (NC State/UNC-Chapel Hill), Elisabeth Tracy (Duke University)
Seed Grant in Innovative Evolutionary Medicine
The clotting system is immature at birth and matures through the first year of life. In infants undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), life-threatening bleeding is a common complication. Bleeding is currently treated with therapies that were developed in adults, however, the infant clotting system is very different, including in ways we are just beginning to understand. Therapies specifically designed for infants could greatly improve their outcomes. Unfortunately, it is difficult to test neonatal specific therapies in this vulnerable patient population, therefore, animal models are required. The overarching goal of this project is to compare the development of the clotting system in infants and piglets to develop a much- needed animal model to test therapies designed to treat bleeding in infants undergoing ECMO.
Publications:
Nellenbach K, Kyu A, Guzzetta N, and Brown A. (2021) Differential sialic acid content in adult and neonatal fibrinogen mediates differences in clot polymerization dynamics. Blood Advances bloodadvances.2021004417.
