Blog of Bloodworks Northwest



Virtual Lunch & Learns with Bloodworks researchers

Thanks to generous donations from private donors and foundations, Bloodworks recently established a state-of-the-art intravital microscopy imaging core, the first of its kind on the West Coast. This imaging core helped our Research Institute recruit some of the brightest minds in blood science, and we’re extremely excited to announce that, for the first time since 2016, we are welcoming two new Researchers to the Institute who are in the process of setting up new labs at Bloodworks:  Dr. Reheman (Raymond) Adili and Dr. Amily Guo. 

About Dr. Adili

Dr. Reheman (Raymond) Adili received his medical education and training in cardiovascular surgery in China. Seeing the devastating effects of abnormal blood clotting associated with cardiovascular diseases firsthand inspired him to pursue a career in translational research. Today, he has over 55 peer-reviewed high-impact research articles. 

At Bloodworks, the Adili laboratory is studying how blood cells and proteins participate in clot formation in arteries, veins, and capillaries during injury, inflammation, and different diseases. Current research projects in the Adili lab focus on studying the underlying pathophysiology of microvascular thrombosis, developing novel therapeutic approaches to treat thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), and restoring hemostatic clots in bleeding disorders, such as trauma and hemophilia. 

Thanks to our financial supporters, Dr. Adili is also establishing a state-of-the-art intravital microscopy imaging core at Bloodworks, the first of it’s kind on the West Coast. Intravital microscopy is a powerful took that enables real-time imaging of blood clotting in vessels, and will advance ongoing research around the country.  

About Dr. Guo

Dr. Li (Amily) Guo grew up in a small town in Shandong Province in China. She received her medical school training there and obtained an MD from the Shandong University. She was inspired during that time to pursue medical research studying blood disorders and biology and came aboard for PhD study. After obtaining her PhD degree at the University of Toronto, Dr. Guo moved to the University of Utah for post-doctoral training further studying the immune functions of platelets.

Dr. Guo has been studying platelets for over a decade with several important discoveries. For example, platelets have been recognized with important functions in hemostasis and thrombosis, but their immune functions have been largely overlooked. Platelet transfusions are routinely prescribed to patients with bleeding risks. Surprisingly, Dr. Guo’s research revealed immune functions of platelet transfusions that has been overlooked for decades. During the pandemic, Dr. Guo also published on an important immunosuppressive function of platelets toward CD8+ T cells during severe infections. This work was highlighted on the cover of the Blood journal and in the accompanying editorial comments. Dr. Guo also actively collaborated with other scientists to study the genetic profile of platelets, platelet generation, and more. Today, Dr. Guo has published over 25 peer-reviewed high-impact research articles, including 7 articles in Blood.

Recently joining Bloodworks, Dr. Guo and her team will further study the immune functions of platelets in cardiovascular diseases, bleeding disorders and severe infections. She will combine her clinical knowledge with her research expertise in platelet and immunology. Her research will not only provide novel knowledge on platelet biology but can also bring novel platelet-centered cell therapies.

Thanks to our financial supporters, Dr. Guo is excited to expand the flow cytometry core at Bloodworks, hoping to bring standardized flow cytometry-based platelet function assays. This will empower us to evaluate the platelet function at single cell level and molecular level. This is the next generation platelet function test as compared to the traditional platelet functional assays that could only evaluate the entire platelet pool of an individual (e.g. platelet aggregation assay evaluates the overall function of an individual’s platelets which is a read-out of ~50 million platelets).

Both researchers are eager to meet with the Bloodworks community of donors and share an introduction to their research. Please consider joining us for one or both of these free virtual Lunch & Learns:

Virtual Lunch & Learn with Dr. Adili
Visualizing Blood Clots: The future of blood research
Tuesday, May 16, 12:00 -1:00 p.m.
RSVP with [email protected]

Virtual Lunch & Learn with Dr. Guo
Overlooked for decades: the immune modulatory functions of platelet transfusions
Thursday, May 25, 12:00 -1:00 p.m.
RSVP with [email protected]

April 11, 2023 10:17AM

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