2019 Wylie Scholar

Dr. Andrea Obi received the 2019 Wylie Scholar Award for her work on “Impact of bone marrow progenitor cells epigenetic memory on venous thrombus formation and resolution”. Her lab seeks to better understand how blood clots in our veins form, the root cause of life-threatening conditions known as Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE).

Acute infection is incredibly common and increases the risk of DVT and death from PE. These conditions affect 1 in 1000 adults and lead to approximately 200,000-300,000 death per year. Blood-thinners, the only available options for treatment and prevention, come with serious risks and cannot be used by everyone. Dr. Obi’s lab has established a link between infection, thrombosis and changes in the bone marrow programming of immune cells. She and her team are working on understanding the interplay between the immune system and thrombosis to help identify new non-blood thinning techniques of preventing and treating DVT in the future.

Dr. Obi’s clinical interests include vascular surgery, aneurysmal and occlusive diseases of the arterial system and the surgical management of superficial venous disease.

“The Wylie Award has been a tremendous ignitor in expanding on our laboratory’s exploration of a major unexplained problem in modern healthcare: the link between deep vein thrombosis and infection. Very few other researchers are trying to solve this problem and the Wylie award provides the necessary resources, a shared vision, and recognition of the challenges faced by our patients which can best be solved by taking the clinical problem back to the benchtop. It is an honor to join the legacy of the surgeon-scientists who have won the Wylie award in the past and we will do our best to leverage it to the same degree of success in obtaining external funding and advancing the knowledge of thrombosis biology.”