CBR Travel Awards: Attending the ISTH 2022 Congress

Our partnership with the Centre for Blood Research (CBR) at the University of British Columbia is helping to train the next generation of researchers in transfusion science. This blog post highlights just some of the achievements in education, training or knowledge mobilization accomplished by CBR trainees. 

Colton Strong is a PhD Candidate supervised by Dr. Christian Kastrup and Canadian Blood Services chief scientist, Dr. Dana Devine, at the Centre for Blood Research in Vancouver. Below is an abridged version of a blog post highlighting his attendance at the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis (ISTH) 2022 Congress in London, UK in July 2022. This blog post originally appeared on the Centre for Blood Research blog in October 2022. 

The International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis (ISTH) 2022 Congress is the most important annual meeting in the field of blood research. The interdisciplinary conference features basic, translational and clinical research in a diverse range of fields within hemostasis including bleeding disorders, coagulation and immunity, to name a few. ISTH also offers industry partners the opportunity to share recent advancements in blood related biotherapeutics and facilitates networking events for attendees. I was accepted to give a poster presentation describing the recent achievements we have made in using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to genetically engineer platelets for therapeutic applications. My primary goals for attending this conference were to disseminate research findings with the greater blood community and to identify key collaborations that would enable us to drive the project forward. 

I started my PhD at UBC mid-pandemic in September 2020 and had yet to attend an international conference in-person until the ISTH 2022 Congress. The opportunity to attend the ISTH 2022 Congress in-person was an eye-opening experience and my first introduction to the international blood community. My attendance has enumerated benefits, both academically and professionally. The theme of ISTH 2022 Congress was centered around research that has been conducted since the beginning of the pandemic and served as an opportunity for leaders in the community to provide status updates on the research in respective fields. Although there were hundreds of oral communication sessions and interesting poster presentations, the core purpose of my attendance was to not only share my own research, but also advance my knowledge on specific topics including: gene therapy, platelet-derived extracellular vesicles and in vitro platelet production. Thanks to support from CBR, I had the opportunity to engage many interesting oral communication sessions and presentations that expanded my knowledge on the respective topics. 

The poster that I presented described our successes transfecting platelets with LNPs and the effects of LNPs on platelet function. Directly expressing exogenous proteins in platelets is something that has not been demonstrated before and sharing our findings with the greater blood communality garnered significant excitement. Specifically, I showed that platelets engineered with LNPs can express luminescent enzymes and have similar in vitro characteristics compared to unmodified platelets. The responsiveness of LNP treated platelets to physiological agonists and their behavior in forming clots was not significantly different than unmodified platelets. While giving the presentation, I was approached by members of the platelet research community and industry representatives that were excited by our platelet technology. We are now actively pursuing new collaborations with national and international researchers. 

I would like to thank CBR for supporting my attendance of the ISTH 2022 Congress in London. The academic and professional benefits garnered at this event will be invaluable to both research and future career success. 

• Learn more about the CBR Travel Awards and how to apply. 

Canadian Blood Services – Driving world-class innovation

Through discovery, development and applied research, Canadian Blood Services drives world-class innovation in blood transfusion, cellular therapy and transplantation—bringing clarity and insight to an increasingly complex healthcare future. Our dedicated research team and extended network of partners engage in exploratory and applied research to create new knowledge, inform and enhance best practices, contribute to the development of new services and technologies, and build capacity through training and collaboration. Find out more about our research impact.  

The opinions reflected in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Canadian Blood Services nor do they reflect the views of Health Canada or any other funding agency.