Shirin Dadina Winner of ACORDA Therapeutics Scientific Excellence Award on the Lisa Wexler Show, September 14th, 2019

Last Thursday, DFSciRes Senior, Shirin Dadina, was interviewed by Lisa Wexler about her research on abdominal aortic aneurysms. Dadina was given this honor through her receipt of the Acorda Science Excellence Award. The recorded interview will air on Saturday morning (9/14/2019) on AM 1490 WGCH. A link to the interview will also be posted here as it becomes available. Congrats, Shirin!  You deserve this recognition! 

​Below please review a short description of her research presented by Shirin Dadina (DFHS Class of 2020)

"Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) is a disease defined by the bulging of the aorta, the main artery in the body. This disease poses a severe threat to the lives of many people around the world. This disease is multi-factorial and many cell types are known to play specific roles in the progression of the disease. One cell type that has yet to be fully understood is regarding the role of platelets in the context of AAAs. Platelet activators known as agonists were identified (ADP and Thrombin) and studied as it was found that when platelets become activated they caused severe weakening to the aortic wall which leads to the development of AAAs. ADP was shown to have the biggest effect in activating platelets in blood samples. A platelet depletion experiment in which granules which house platelet activators were removed from mouse models was also carried out and its effects were observed. It was found that when platelets were depleted from mouse models, it was protective against the disease as the incidence of AAAs decreased. When platelets were depleted, the number of monocytes were showed to have decreased and healthy tissue formed. Furthermore, this study exemplified that platelets do have the ability to regulate the inflammatory process in the context of AAAs. In manipulating platelets and the regulation of this process, eventually a therapeutic method can be developed to treat this disease which would ease the burden of this disease on the aging population." 

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