The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $349,237 Project Grant on May 1, 2024 under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to Rutgers, The State University to conduct collaborative research on understanding the role of tension in the digestion of blood clots. The research aims to test hypotheses on how inherent and applied tension on fibrin networks (the structural scaffold of blood clots) impact the fibrinolytic process, or the breakdown of blood clots. The multi-disciplinary project will involve tensile testing, time-resolved microscopy, and mathematical modeling across three institutions to develop a combinatorial multiscale model that can predict lytic outcomes based on mechanical forces. The results are expected to yield a deeper understanding of the factors leading to increased risk of strokes and heart attacks due to improper blood clot digestion, potentially providing avenues for improved national health.
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