Student Research at Duke

As I mentioned, I am working in the Hematology/Oncology lab with Dr. Tom Ortel. His research focuses on rare diseases of the blood involving thrombosis (severe clotting) or hemorrhage (severe bleeding). He just finished a study on Antiphopholipid syndrome, an autoimmune disease characterized by excessive blood clotting. Just yesterday, I went to a talk he gave to his colleagues about his findings. He shared a few patient case studies and was able to recommend more up-to-date treatments for APS patients. I enjoyed how he was able to apply his research to real patient care. The study I’ll be helping out with involves a condition called Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia. It sounds just like its name: a drug called heparin produced unintended platelet aggregation leading to thrombosis in cardiac bypass patients. To investigate, we will be performing RNA extractions from human blood and analyzing gene expression patterns with microarray analysis. I had a nice introdcution to the lab setup this week and I’m eager to begin the real extractions on Monday! Here is a picture of my mentor and one of me:

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