News Archives | UNC Blood Research Center

At UNC-Chapel Hill, Dr. Wolfgang Bergmeier and his lab team are uncovering how platelet dysfunction affects bleeding and clotting in patients. Their research is shaping more effective transfusion strategies and new combination therapies to improve patient care. Platelets are the body’s first responders. 🩸 By studying how platelets function in both health and disease, researchers …

View BRC January 2026 Newsletter January 2026 Newsletter

Key Lab publishes study describing rapid and sensitive assay for hyperfibrinolysis in plasma. In collaboration with colleagues in the UK who first described a form of severe post-partum hemorrhage (PPH) characterized by marked hyperfibrinolysis, a novel rapid assay for fibrinolytic activation in plasma developed in the lab (the Fibrinolytic Activation Screening Test or ‘FAST’ assay) reliably distinguished Acute Obstetric …

Robert Lee, PhD and Wolfgang Bergmeier, PhD, were part of a team studying the contribution of platelets to mast cell activation in sepsis, published in the Journal Nature Communications. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41339353/

Aleksei Martianov, postdoc in the Bergmeier lab, presented his work as an oral presentation at ASH, his presentation was featured in “Best of ASH”, and he received the inaugural ASH Richard T. Silver, MD Abstract Achievement Award for Myeloproliferative Neoplasms. In addition, Aleksei was awarded the Staff Excellence Award for a postdoctoral fellow in the …

YJ Choi, an MD/PhD trainee in Wolberg laboratory, received a NOA for her AHA proposal entitled, “Define and Target Genetic Regulators of Fibrinogen Synthesis to Reduce Thrombosis”

Nigel Key Co-Authors Pivotal Hemophilia Gene Therapy Study in NEJM Nigel Key was a contributing author on the final analysis of the HOPE-B study results that were published online in in the New England Journal of Medicine on December 7, 2025 coincident with presentation of the data at the ASH meeting in Orlando. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2514332?query=RP …

Nigel Mackman featured in: 29 Carolina faculty named ‘highly cited researchers’ Nigel Mackman, PhD Distinguished professor of medicine Pathology, and Pharmacology 29 Carolina faculty named ‘highly cited researchers’

Graduate students in the Aleman and Dominguez Labs won Abstract Achievement Awards for the upcoming ASH meeting. Kwame Forbes, PhD Candidate in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology for “Decoding the gene regulatory response to iron through multiomics.” Michael Sullivan, PhD Candidate in Pharmacology for “Intracellular iron levels alter the protein interactome of PCBP1.

View BRC November 2025 Newsletter November 2025 Newsletter

Dr. Aleksei Martianov (PI: Dr. Wolfgang Bergmeier) was awarded the Richard T. Silver, MD Abstract Achievement Award for Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs). He will give an oral presentation entitled “Platelet priming in MPN triggers pro-thrombotic intermediate affinity state in αIIbβ3 integrin” on Sunday December 7, 2025 at 9:30 AM in Room W304-EFGH. Dr. Nirupama Ramadas (PI: …

On October 7, the Pathobiology and Translational Science graduate program had their annual student symposium. BRC trainees presented posters (YJ Choi – Wolberg Lab, Claire Reist – Flick Lab) and one gave a talk (Kylie Hutchison – Sparkenbaugh Lab). Alisa Wolberg, Steve Hur, and Erica were BRC faculty in attendance. We also had several postdocs, …

Category: News

Dr. Wolfgang Bergmeier and his lab team are uncovering how platelet dysfunction affects bleeding and clotting in patients

BRC January 2026 Newsletter

Key Lab publishes study describing rapid and sensitive assay for hyperfibrinolysis in plasma

Robert Lee, PhD and Wolfgang Bergmeier, PhD, were part of a team studying the contribution of platelets to mast cell activation in sepsis, published in the Journal Nature Communications.

Aleksei Martianov, awarded the Staff Excellence Award

YJ Choi received a NOA for proposal entitled, “Define and Target Genetic Regulators of Fibrinogen Synthesis to Reduce Thrombosis”

Nigel Key Co-Authors Pivotal Hemophilia Gene Therapy Study in NEJM

Nigel Mackman featured in: 29 Carolina faculty named ‘highly cited researchers’

Graduate students won Abstract Achievement Awards for the ASH 12.2025 meeting

BRC November 2025 Newsletter

Three postdoctoral fellows in the BRC have received recognition from the American Society of Hematology.

Pathobiology and Translational Science graduate program had their annual student symposium