On Oct 1, 2013, the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) at the University of British Columbia hosted the 13th LSI Café Scientifique. Over 60 interested community members, students and faculty gathered for an informal and participatory dialogue with LSI experts for new series of Cafes focused on Disease.  The topic of this session was “Walking the tight-rope between Bleeding and Clotting”.

The Café featured members of the Centre for Blood Research, Dr. Ed Pryzdial, Scientist and Clinical Professor, department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Dr. Shannon Jackson, Clinical Assistant Professor and Staff Hematologist, Providence Health Care

After injury to a blood vessel, your body has an intricate method to seal just the site of the leaky vessel by making a blood clot. Eventually the clot is dissolved to restore normal blood flow, so healing can occur. Thrombosis is the highly prevalent disease that results in blockage of a blood vessel when the precise balance between clot-forming and clot-dissolving tips to the former, resulting in a heart attack, deep vein thrombosis or stroke. On the other side of the balance, if not enough clot forms, serious bleeding may occur, such as in hemophilia. Drs. Jackson and Pryzdial tag-teamed to explain the blood clotting “tight-rope”, the treatment of perplexing patients dangling on the tight-rope and the development of a new clot-busting medicine.

To view the video link of the session, please click HERE.

To view more pictures from the event, please visit our Facebook page.