Julia’s story is not just hers, but her father's as well. Her experiences of going to doctor’s appointments with her father inspired her research into heart and blood health.

Now she is working on finding new ways to prevent and treat blood clots, from lifestyle changes to better treatments. And in doing so can help everyone live healthier lives.

Julia is a Research Fellow in the School of Medicine. She has recently been awarded a Mautner BHF Career Development Fellowship to help her establish her own research group.

Read more about Julia and her research.

Transcript

[Julia is sitting in front of a white background speaking directly to camera.]

Julia: So, you’ve probably heard of blood clots before. In fact, one in four people worldwide will die of causes related to blood clots, which essentially causes your blood flow to be interrupted, leading to things like heart attacks and strokes. But it's not the scary statistics that got me interested in researching this topic, but really something much closer to heart.

So, I've always been very close to my dad, and when I was really young, I used to like tagging along with him to wherever he went. And he used to take me along with him to pick up my sister from university late at night, for instance. He used to take me along with him whenever he had to go into the office at the weekend. And I also used to go along with him to his doctor appointments. More specifically the cardiologist. And during these visits. I remember him doing the stress test, which is when he has to run on the treadmill and the elevation gets progressively higher and higher. And the doctor used to very kindly explain to me what was happening physiologically.

During these visits, he also had to have his blood drawn. And when I was older, he told me that people used to think it was very sweet that he would ask me to hold his hand and distract him while this was going on, thinking he was doing that to be nice to me. But really, he's absolutely terrified of needles. So that was no joke.

So, because of this, I feel like I always really enjoyed learning about science in school, particularly learning about the heart. So, I decided to go with the flow and do a science degree at university.

So, at the end of my second year of university, I received a video call from my dad. He was back in our home country of Brazil at the time, and my sisters were also on this call. When I answered the call, I was very shocked to see that my dad was in the hospital bed. And he said everything was fine and we shouldn't worry. But the reason he was there was because he received a phone call from his doctor a few days prior saying he had just looked at his latest scan and he could see that there were some blood vessels that had become narrow, meaning that my dad was at a very high risk of developing a blood clot, which would lead to a heart attack.

So, the doctor suggested that he should come in and have a procedure done, which essentially meant that he had a little stent, which is a cylinder that goes into your blood vessels near the narrowing, and then it allows the blood vessels to be opened back up. And the reason why this had happened to my dad, who was otherwise healthy and only 52 at the time, was because of a genetic predisposition.

So, this event inspired my interest in cardiovascular health even further. And so, I decided to do a master's in preventive cardiology. Now, this course wasn't research based, and that's when I realised that I really enjoyed doing research and I really enjoyed learning about the very specific mechanisms that are involved in cardiovascular health. And so, this led me to go on to do a PhD. And the project I did as my PhD involved research in cardiovascular health related to diabetes.

Once I finished my PhD, I saw the opportunity to join a postdoctoral research position investigating blood clots. And this is where I've been since.

So recently I received an internal funding opportunity that allows me to kick start my independent research career, but also follow my research vision, which is, of course, prevention of blood clots. As I feel like this topic is really in my blood.

So, so far, I've been telling you about the bad side of blood clots, but really blood clotting is a natural process and it plays a very important role in our daily lives. So, for example, if you accidentally cut your finger while you're cooking, this will cause your blood to clot. And that's a good thing in this instance, because it will stop you from bleeding. But there are instances where clotting essentially gets out of control and in these instances is when potentially deadly blood clots may form. And certain individuals are at higher risk of developing blood clots. So, for example, my dad with a genetic predisposition, but also individuals with diabetes who are twice as likely to develop blood clots than individuals without diabetes.

So, my research focuses on identifying what happens at a cellular level that causes changes in the activity of a blood clot components, which include things like platelets, which are the sticky cells in your blood, that make them more prone to elicit a clotting response in certain individuals. And importantly, how can we prevent or decrease these changes from taking place to stop clotting, getting out of control?

So through my research on blood clot prevention, as well as raising awareness about blood clots, I hope to contribute to keeping everyone's blood going with the flow.