The Fastest Bond in Biology can Kill You or Save Your Life

Abstract: Thrombosis is the conversion of a liquid into a solid to stop flow. Biology has devised an ingenious way to create this conversion in milliseconds. I will discuss the fluid mechanics of conversion of particulate flow to gather rare cell fragments to form a blood clot. This blood clot occludes a blood vessel in minutes to cause a heart attack or stroke. The process involves a shear sensitive protein (VWF) that elongates to aggregate platelets with almost 100% efficiency. The biophysics at multiple scales is shown with computational and experimental methods. A positive feedback loop causes occlusion by extension of fingers into the flow by non-uniform stochastics in an agent-based model of macroscopic growth. The apparatus that causes heart attacks and strokes was actually built to save lives when bleeding. The understanding of the biophysics can yield a clinical diagnostic, prevention, and treatment, and may suggest a solution for oil pipeline leaks.