The American Heart Association has named Bruce Furie, MD, Chief of the Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, as a 2014 Distinguished Scientist. Furie is one of six recipients of this award in 2014. He was honoured during the opening session at AHA's Scientific Session on 15 November.
Furie has been involved in cardiovascular health for more than 40 years. He is a leader in haemostasis and thrombosis research and his work has led to pioneering discoveries in understanding the mechanisms that form blood clots. Blood clots account for over half of all morbidity and mortality in the US and are also a leading cause of heart attack and stroke.
Furie's work also led to the discovery of P-selectin, an adhesion molecule that serves as molecular Velcro to capture critical white blood cells at the site of inflammation. He was also part of the group that developed a novel imaging technology that witnessed thrombus formation in a living animal.
According to BIDMC Chair of Medicine Mark Zeidel, MD, “Bruce Furie’s work has provided the medical community with critically important insights into exactly how blood clots form. His one-of-a-kind widefield and confocal imaging system has shown that a critical series of enzymes known for their participation in protein synthesis are also required for thrombus formation.”
Vikas Sukhatmae, MD, PhD, and BIDMC's Chief Academic Officer, stated that Dr. Furie is a quintessential translational scientist and his work related to protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) has played a critical role in understanding thrombi and can serve as an improved target for a novel class of antithrombotics.
Furie has previously received the Dameshek Prize of the American Society of Haematology, a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and an honorary degree from Lund University, Sweden.
He currently serves as the Secretary General of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. Furie served as President of the 2009 Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
Furie has contributed more than 300 medical and scientific papers as author or co-author. He has served as co-editor of Haematology: Basic Principles and Practice and was also the lead editor of Clinical Haematology-Oncology: Presentations, Diagnosis and Treatment. Additionally, he has served on the editorial boards of several journals including Blood, The Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis and Molecular Medicine.
Furie
received his AB from Princeton University and his MD from the
University of Pennsylvania. Following his residency there, Furie
became a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH. In 1975, he and Dr. Barbara C.
Furie established a joint laboratory New England Medical Center and
Tufts University School of Medicine. From 1990 to 1996, he was the Chief
of the Division of Hematology-Oncology. He has been with Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center since 1997, when he served as the Director of
its Cancer Center.
The AHA Distinguished
Scientist award was created ten years ago. It recognises members of AHA
that have made significant, original and sustained scientific
contributions and have played an important role in advancing the AHA's
mission of “building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular disease and
stroke.”
Source: BIDMC
Image Credit: Lupus
Research Institute
