On Thursday, 30th June the Siena Society was delighted to welcome Professor Alastair Poole from Bristol University's Pharmacology and Cell Biology department
Even for the non-Biologists amongst the sizeable audience, Professor Poole managed to explain the important function that platelets, (those small ‘stickey’ sentinels that travel along our arteries and veins looking for damage) in a way that did not patronise his audience, nor go too far over our heads.
In a clear and expert lecture, graphically illustrated by colourful slides and videos, we gained an understanding of how artherothrombotic plaques can build up in the arteries owing to too much cholesterol in our blood system. These can lead up to a build up of platelets that may be relatively small (embolism) or larger and more serious (thrombosis) that can lead to a blockage, causing either angina or heart attack.
It became clear that platelets are obviously essential in their clotting function when we sustain an injury but when they clump together inside our arteries, they can cause serious and potentially life-threatening problems.
Professor Poole described the work that he and his lab are doing to combat not only coronary heart disease but also Type 2 Diabetes which is clearly becoming more prevalent in our society.
For us all it was a highly stimulating evening, especially for those either hoping to study Medicine or Biological Sciences at university.