The grant supports Professor Poole’s investigation into how platelets – the 'sticky' cells of the blood – cause thrombosis, the major cause of heart attacks and strokes, which together result in over 200,000 deaths per year in the UK. At least 10 times as many people suffer with the ill effects of stroke and heart attack.

‘Platelets are the current target for antithrombotic therapy,’ said Professor Poole. ‘For instance, they are the target cell for aspirin and similar drugs, which are far from ideal because of their side-effects.’

This grant, totalling some £1.3 million over the next five years, will examine how platelets may be activated to block blood vessels. Professor Poole and his team hope to identify new genes and processes involved in thrombosis, some of which may form antithrombotic drug targets in the future.

The grant is entitled 'Protein kinase C-dependent platelet secretion: central regulator of thrombosis and atherogenesis'; the co-applicants are Dr Ingeborg Hers from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and Dr Christopher Jackson from the Bristol Heart Institute (of which Professor Poole and Dr Hers are also members).