A new method to study thrombosis that uses fewer animals

Joint NC3Rs/BHF PhD Studentship: Reducing animal use in thrombosis research with an ex vivo injury model (Dr Matthew Harper)

Dr Matthew Harper is supervising a PhD student who will develop a new research model to study thrombosis (when blood clots form inside blood vessels) that is less reliant on animals. Heart attacks and strokes are caused by blood clots blocking blood vessels supplying the heart or brain. Thrombosis is complicated, so many researchers use ‘in vivo’ animal models to study it, and sometimes have to use large numbers of animals. Dr Harper wants to develop new methods to study thrombosis that don’t require so many animals. In this project, the student will develop an assay where blood will be made to flow through sections of blood vessels taken from mice. In the model, the student will test the ability of human and mouse platelets to form clots, and sensitivity to anti-clotting drugs. If this approach works it will reduce the total mouse numbers needed to answer this question by at least half, and further developments could reduce animal numbers even more. This research will lead to an experimental model that accurately reproduces the complicated processes that led to thrombosis, but requires fewer animals. By mimicking human disease as closely as possible, it could help scientists discover new drugs to treat thrombosis.