McAllister Heart Institute Seminar Series: Wolfgang Bergmeier, PhD, “Platelets at the vascular interface: finding the right balance between too little and too much activation”

Speaker: Wolfgang Bergmeier, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics, UNC
Topic: Platelets at the vascular interface: finding the right balance between too little and too much activation

Presentation Preview: Platelets are small anucleated cells that constantly patrol the cardiovascular system to preserve its integrity and prevent excessive blood loss where the vessel lining is breached. Their key challenge is to form a hemostatic plug under conditions of high shear forces. To do so, platelets have evolved a molecular machinery that enables them to sense trace amounts of signals at the site of damage and to rapidly shift from a non-adhesive to a pro-adhesive state. However, this highly efficient molecular machinery can also lead to unintended platelet activation and cause clinical complications such as thrombocytopenia and thrombosis. Thus, several checkpoints are in place to tightly control platelet activation and adhesiveness in space and time. In this talk I will discuss the major molecular mechanisms controlling platelet activation in circulation and at sites of vascular injury, with a particular focus on signaling by the small GTPase Rap1.