June 23, 2005

"Laser Tweezers" Permit Penn Researchers to Describe Microscopic Mechanical Properties of Blood Clots
A Better Understanding of Clot Physiology Can Lead
to More Effective Therapies

A colorized scanning electron microscope image of a whole blood clot. The fibrin fibers are blue, platelet aggregates purple, and red blood cells red.

Credit: Yuri Veklich and John W. Weisel, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Confocal light micrograph of a blood plasma clot.

Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Jean-Philippe Collet and John W. Weisel, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine