henry copeland:

Platelet 'decoys' outsmart both clots and cancer: Deactivated platelets offer a potential drug-free, reversible antiplatelet therapy -- ScienceDaily

Now, a team of researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and several collaborating institutions has created a drug-free, reversible antiplatelet therapy that employs deactivated "decoy" platelets that could reduce the risk of blood clots and potentially prevent cancer metastasis as well. The research is reported in Science Translational Medicine. "The reversibility and immediate onset of action are major advantages of our platelet decoys, and we envision them to be useful in hospital-based situations such as preventing clotting in high-risk patients just before they undergo surgery, or when given alongside chemotherapy to prevent existing tumors from spreading," said first author Anne-Laure Papa, Ph.D., who was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute working with the Institute's Founding Director, Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. when the research was carried out and is now an Assistant Professor at George Washington University. Ingber is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital, as well as Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
- www.sciencedaily.com