Blood clot imaging suite: Fundraising complete!

In the scientific world, technology is fundamental to progress. And thanks to the generosity of our community, scientific progress is getting a huge boost at Bloodworks Research Institute this winter with a state-of-the-art blood clot imaging suite.

In January of this year, we shared with you our dream of building the first and only live blood vessel imaging suite in the Pacific Northwest. Today, I am proud to share that we are one step closer to making that dream a reality: we have successfully completed our fundraising campaign.

Why a blood clot imaging suite? While you may not know it, unwanted blood clots are historically the number one cause of death worldwide: more deadly than all cancers and infectious diseases combined. At Bloodworks Research Institute, we imagine a world where no one dies of an unwanted blood clot. With funding secured for special microscopes and an ultrasound system—together we refer to them as a blood clot imaging suite—our scientists will soon be able to see blood clots in living organisms. They’ll be able to observe how blood clots are formed and cleared within blood vessels of all sizes in real time. Ultimately, this will allow them to identify ways to treat, prevent, and improve the outcome in patients with unwanted blood clots.

Through generous grants from the Seattle Foundation, Sunderland Foundation, Squaxin Island Tribe, Catherine Holmes Wilkins Foundation, Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation, and an anonymous estate gift, we successfully raised $653,251 over the last 9 months. With this funding, we ordered the equipment earlier this month, with installation expected in the next 4 to 6 months.

While we wait for the equipment to be delivered and installed, the benefits of this new equipment are already apparent. Dr. Reheman Adili from the University of Michigan has agreed to join Bloodworks Research Institute as the director for the new imaging suite. The promise of a state-of-the-art imaging suite was a significant motivating factor in the successful recruitment of Dr. Adili. Bloodworks researcher Dominic Chung shared his excitement and emphasized, “the expertise and experience of Dr. Adili will greatly complement the expertise of our current investigators, strengthening all of our programs.”

The new state-of-the-art imaging suite will be a landmark addition to the US scientific community. Bloodworks researcher Junmei Chen said, “To our knowledge, this will be one of the first blood vessel imaging suites of its kind in the US. It will be a powerful tool not only for research here at Bloodworks, but throughout our PNW scientific community.”

Here are just a few more ways that we envision the new imaging suite making an impact:

Patient Care: Many of the projects that will utilize the new equipment have the potential to make an impact on how we treat patients with unwanted blood clots in the future.
Publications: Discoveries made using the new imaging suite will be submitted for publication in scientific journals, and presented at national and international meetings. The images we will be able to capture with the new equipment will elevate the caliber of our publications.
Future Funding: We will use the new imaging suite to collect data for federal and private grant applications, making them more competitive for funding and thereby making research possible for years to come.
Strengthening the Seattle Scientific Community: By adding this equipment to Bloodworks Research Institute as a shared resource, we are not only elevating our own research around blood clotting, but also the work at institutions like Seattle Children’s, Fred Hutch, and the University of Washington. From blood cancers to blood transfusions, this equipment will have a massive impact on medical research for years to come.

Thank you to all of the funders who made this campaign a success, and I look forward to sharing more with you when we launch the Bloodworks Research Institute Imaging Core in early 2023.