From cells to systems: Pioneering multi-level thrombosis risk prediction models - “ThromboRisk”

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"Thrombosis, an occlusive blood clot, underlies ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, and venous thrombosis, causing 1 in 4 deaths globally. Its incidence is rising due to an increasingly aging population and increased cardiovascular diseases, along with more cardiovascular implants. Unfortunately, limited understanding of thrombus formation, growth, and rupture hampers patient-specific prognosis. Current treatment strategies include antithrombotic therapy and thrombectomy, but improvements are needed for patient-specific treatments due to common recurrence and unknown impacts on clot fragmentation and thromboembolism. To effectively understand disease mechanisms and accurately predict treatment outcomes, it is crucial to integrate knowledge across multiple scales, harnessing a diverse range of cutting-edge in silico, in vitro, and in vivo technologies. This powerful fusion of emerging technologies holds the potential to revolutionize targeted and personalized medicine. However, there remains a significant shortage of trained professionals capable of co-creating such comprehensive and holistic disease models. ThromboRisk will therefore train 18 exceptional doctoral candidates (DCs) in diverse scientific fields, including mechanobiology, biochemistry, pathophysiology, and modeling. These researchers will collaborate within an international and interdisciplinary consortium to develop a platform advancing our understanding of thrombosis across scales, hereby bridging the gap between micro-level thrombus processes and macro-level impacts on disease prognosis, enabling clinical application. Unlike traditional engineering curricula, which address well-defined problems, ThromboRisk tackles complex, multifactorial ""wicked problems"" in fields of thrombosis by implementing a Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) doctoral training program to foster creativity, innovation, and societal impact. CBL is growing in undergraduate education but remains underdeveloped in doctoral training, where it has the potential to encourage DCs to step outside their comfort zones, think creatively, manage risks, and use technology responsibly in problem-solving. The DCs will work on real-world problems with peers, supervisors, consortium members, and external stakeholders, who act as ""real clients"" and co-creators."