Working out how a protein called BAMBI affects blood clotting

BAMBI and its role in the anticoagulant function of the endothelium

Dr Isabelle Salles-Crawley and her colleagues at Imperial College London are studying BAMBI, a protein found on the surface of the endothelial cells that line our blood vessels. BAMBI protein on endothelial cells has been shown to be important for normal blood clotting (e.g. when we cut ourselves), but now Dr Salles Crawley and her team want to find out what role this protein plays in blood clotting during the development of heart and circulatory diseases. Dr Salles-Crawley’s team have discovered that blood clots in mice without endothelial BAMBI are less stable. In this project they will try to figure out the way in which BAMBI controls clot stability; they think that this involves a change in the overall way that endothelial cells behave during the process of making a blood clot. This research will reveal more about BAMBI's role in blood clotting and will improve our understanding of how it is involved in heart and circulatory diseases. It will also help us to understand if BAMBI can affect the working of drugs used to prevent blood clotting.