"Ontsteking en trombose, eindelijk herenigd!"
 

We are all familiar with inflammation: the cuticle becoming inflamed or a cut on the finger that stops bleeding after a while. These two things seem to have little to do with each other. However, these two can be seen as parts of an overarching mechanism to defend against injury. Early in evolution, inflammatory and blood clotting functions were united in one cell type and a handful of enzymes. But these functions increasingly took on lives of their own as higher organisms evolved, resulting in various specialized cells and enzymes.

Thrombosis is a harmful blood clotting reaction, which can result in the clot cutting off blood supply to organs. Worldwide, one of every four deaths can be traced to thrombosis. Recent research has shown that inflammation and blood clotting interact strongly during the thrombosis process, particularly during infections.

During my inaugural lecture, I will explain why it is also important for contemporary thrombosis research to take inflammatory processes into account. This may lead to safer drugs and improved diagnostics in the future. Although inflammation and blood clotting have evolutionarily gone their separate ways, my future research will (finally) reunite them.

Click here for the live stream.