News Archives | UNC Blood Research Center

Mofiyin Obadina, MD and Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD received funding from NC TRaCS for their TTSA proposal entitled “Hypoxemia-Induced Platelet Activation in Sickle Cell Disease Pregnancy: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets.” This award supports the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations and projects. Here, Dr. Obadina and Dr. Sparkenbaugh will explore the effect of nocturnal hypoxemia on aberrant …

Drs. Steven Hur and Matthew Flick recently had their work “Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Deficiency Delays the Development of Obseity and Metabolic Sequelae” published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB). Read more here

Dr. Ramadas and Sparkenbaugh recently published their study “Targeting PAR1 Biased Signaling with Parmodulin Reduces Thromboinflammation and Acute Lung Injury in Sickle Cell Disease” in Blood Advances. UNC BRC undergraduate alumni Joshua Dutton and Kailyn Lowder are co-authors. Drs Rani Sellers and Claire Kazen performed veterinary histopathology. Drs. Jacob DeRousse and Chris Dockendorff provided reagents. …

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 are …

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.

Category: News

Mofiyin Obadina, MD and Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD received funding from NC TRaCS

Drs. Steven Hur and Matthew Flick’s article has been chosen as one of the two “Featured” articles in the March 2026 issue of ATVB

Drs. Nirupama Ramadas and Erica Sparkenbaugh publish in Blood Advances

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