Humans produce billions of clot-forming platelets every day, but there are times when there aren’t enough of them, such as with certain diseases or during invasive surgery. Now, University of Pennsylvania researchers have demonstrated that a single drug can induce bone marrow cells called megakaryocytes to quadruple the number of platelets they produce. Jae-Won Shin, a graduate student of pharmacology in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and Dennis E. Discher, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, led the research. They collaborated with Joe Swift and Ph.D. student Kyle R. Spinler, also of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
