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Research and Clinical Interests
Dr. Reilly's research interests focus on platelet biology, the pathophysiology of immune thrombocytopenias and use of transgenic mouse models to gain a greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms of human diseases. Dr. Reilly, in collaboration with Dr. Steven McKenzie, created and characterized a transgenic mouse model of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia-thrombosis (HIT/T). HIT/T is the most frequent cause of drug-induced antibody-mediated thrombocytopenia, a common cause of life- and limb-threatening thrombosis. Although antibodies to heparin/PF4 complexes are found in essentially all patients with HIT/T, it is unclear how antibody formation is initiated, why only small subsets of these antibodies cause disease or the mechanism by which they initiate thrombosis.
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