Contact:
Alex Krouse (akrouse@mcw.edu)
External Communications Specialist
Cellular: 414-491-7156
Office: 414-955-5825
Milwaukee, Wis. – The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) has received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to research the relationship between von Willebrand factor (VWF), a protein that helps blood clot, and collagen, one of the major structural components of blood vessel walls.
Veronica Flood, MD, associate professor of pediatric hematology at MCW, is the principal investigator of the study.
According to the NIH, most researchers agree that von Willebrand disease, a VWF defect that slows the clotting process, is the most common genetic bleeding disorder. After an injury, collagen, the substance that holds the whole body together, found just under the surface of blood vessel walls, is exposed to flowing blood. This initiates a process in which VWF functions in the adhesion of platelets to various types of collagen to begin the clotting process and stop active bleeding. And while researchers understand how VWF interacts with some types of collagen, there remain questions about its relationship with type IV collagen, one of the major components of blood vessel walls. Like people with VWF defects such as Von Willebrand disease, patients with genetic defects in type IV collagen also experience excessive bleeding.
Dr. Flood’s research will focus on exploring the interaction between type IV collagen and VWF with a long-term goal of developing interventions to improve the blood-clotting process in patients with defects in this interaction.
“A better understanding of the molecular interactions between VWF and type IV collagen will ultimately lead us to identify the biology of blood clotting defects and will greatly help in the creation of improved treatment for affected patients,” Dr. Flood says.
About the Medical College of Wisconsin
The Medical College of Wisconsin is the state’s only private medical school and health sciences graduate school. Founded in 1893, it is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and community engagement. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in MCW’s medical school and graduate school programs in Milwaukee, and 26 medical students are enrolled at MCW-Green Bay. A regional medical education campus is scheduled to open in Central Wisconsin in 2016. MCW’s School of Pharmacy will open in 2017 or 2018 with an initial class size of 60 students. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In FY 2014-15, faculty received approximately $158 million in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes, of which approximately $139 million is for research. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, MCW faculty direct or collaborate on more than 3,200 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,500 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 525,000 patients annually.
