Enrico Di Cera, M.D., Alice A. Doisy Professor and Chairman of Biochemistry, has been awarded a five-year subcontract as part of a U54 Translational Research Centers in Thrombotic and Hemostatic Disorders (TRC-THD) Specialized Center grant headed by Evan Sadler, Ph.D., at Washington University. The application, which consists of 5 projects and 4 Core Units, was awarded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
The overall goal of the grant is to improve the health and survival of thrombosis patients by initiating collaborations between basic scientists and clinicians to develop new treatments for thrombosis. Dr. Di Cera’s project entitled “Engineering thrombin for exclusive activity toward Protein C” has two parts: 1) elucidation of the molecular mechanism of action of existing anticoagulant thrombin mutants; and, 2) conversion of thrombin into an exclusive activator or protein C.
