06/11/14  Portland, Ore.

Jeremy Glynn, PhD candidate in the department of Biomedical Engineering, was awarded a Predoctoral Research Fellowship by the American Heart Association (AHA) for his proposal entitled, "Thrombomodulin-modified Artificial Venous Valves." 

Since entering the department in 2011, Jeremy has focused on characterizing blood clot formation on a biomaterial used in an investigational artificial venous valve. An artificial venous valve would be a potentially beneficial treatment for patients with chronic deep venous insufficiency. Previous attempts to create an artificial valve have predominantly failed due to blood clot formation on the valve. Jeremy's proposal will modify an artificial venous valve biomaterial with a natural anticoagulation protein - thrombomodulin - and determine the anticoagulant effect using defined in vitro systems to identify the specific coagulation factors and pathways affected. Additionally, Jeremy will use an ex vivo blood shunting system to gather spatial and temporal measurements of platelet adhesion and fibrin deposition on the artificial valves under venous blood flow conditions to characterize flow-dependent blood clot formation.