Dr Jessica Mountford's PhD teases out enzyme role in arterial thrombosis

Dr Jessica Mountford (ACBD), was awarded her PhD in December 2012 and has taken a postdoctoral research position at the University of Western Australia. Her thesis was "Defining the role of class II Phosphoinositide 3-Kinases in platelet function". Platelets are the principal blood cell responsible for the development of arterial thrombosis. Jessica's thesis investigates the signalling pathways of an intracellular enzyme, Class II PI3K, involved in cell signalling events.
The Class I enzymes are well understood, but little is known about the Class II enzymes. Jessica's research demonstrated that PI3K-C2α regulates the function of cell surface platelet adhesion receptors. She was supervised by Dr Justin Hamilton.