Seminar: Melina Kibbe MD (UNC Surgery)

Seminar title “A Novel Targeted Nanotherapeutic Approach to Stop Hemorrhage”

Host: Leslie Parise

Dr. Melina Kibbe is the Colin G Thomas Distinguished Professor and Chair of Surgery at UNC who moved here almost 3 years ago from Northwestern University. She is a very engaging speaker whose research encompasses various aspects of blood vessel growth and repair. In this seminar she will discuss non-compressible torso hemorrhage.  Non-compressible torso hemorrhage is a leading cause of potentially preventable death in both battlefield and civilian populations.  Thus, there is a great need for an effective therapy that can be used as either a definitive treatment or as a bridge to more definitive surgical control of bleeding.  Dr. Kibbe’s laboratory, with support from the Department of Defense, has been developing and evaluating a novel intravenously delivered targeted therapy to stop hemorrhage. More specifically, this therapy utilizes self-assembled peptide amphiphile nanofibers targeted to tissue factor, which is exposed at the site of injury following tissue damage.