Experimental Haemostasis
The formation of blood clots as integral part of haemostasis is vital to protect us from bleeding and severe blood loss upon injury. However, blood clots formed in the context of cardio- and cerebreovascular diseases (e.g. myocardial infarction and stroke) and venous thromboembolism are harmful and can be life-threatening.
In general, our research group is interested in the formation, the characteristics and the resolution of blood clots and factors that can influence these processes. In particular, we focus on coagulation factor XIII and on interactions between the complement system and coagulation.
Coagulation factor XIII (FXIII)
During coagulation FXIII becomes activated by thrombin and, as a transglutaminase, crosslinks loose fibrin fibres to a stable fibrin network, thus FXIII crucially contributes to clot formation. We study the role of FXIII in cardiovascular diseases, characterise mutations causing congenital FXIII deficiency, and perform biochemical studies to investigate the role of FXIII activation peptide using functional assays and cell expression of FXIII variants to learn more about structure-function aspects.
