Project title: The role of innate immunity in venous thromboembolism.

There is increasing evidence of complement activation in thromboembolic disease and concurrent activation of complement and coagulation (as well as the other plasma cascade systems), e.g., as in sepsis, is collectively designated as thromboinflammation.

This study aims to identify roles of complement in the pathogenesis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in three focus areas; (1) clinical epidemiology studies of association between complement factors and VTE, (2) mechanistically oriented ex vivo models such as complement and endothelial cell activation, and (3) in vivo models with model development as a first step. Ultimately, key complement proteins identified here can be included in risk prediction models and even targeted therapeutically in thromboinflammation.

The project is financed by the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority and organized within the Norwegian Complement Research Group, the Thrombosis Research Center (TREC) at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, as well as in the Nordland Hospital Trust, where I currently also work as a resident doctor.