Cardiovascular disease, particularly thrombotic vascular occlusion, is the leading cause of death worldwide. Current therapeutic approaches are ineffective and carry significant risks such as bleeding. Recent evidence indicates that the immune system has a significant impact on thrombotic diseases. In particular, the interaction between neutrophils and platelets plays a crucial role in clot formation. This aspect has mainly been studied in animal models; in humans, the mechanisms are unclear and clinically useful prognostic and diagnostic markers are lacking.
Leo Nicolai hopes to change this with the CAPITALISE project - "DeCiphering plAtelet and neutroPhil phenotype and functIon in Thrombosis And vascuLar dISeasE". He is a researcher and physician at the Medical Clinic and Polyclinic I (Cardiology) of the LMU Hospital in Munich. In the project, he focuses on patients with pulmonary embolism, stroke and myocardial infarction and comprehensively analyses the function of platelets, neutrophils and their interaction. He also uses cutting-edge omics approaches to better understand the phenotype of cells in these diseases. This will lead to new prognostic and diagnostic markers and potential therapeutic targets, which can then be further validated in animal models.
Scientifc contact: Dr Leo Nicolai, Medical Clinic I, LMU University Hospital Munich, leo.nicolai(at)med.uni-muenchen.de
