Session 3: Flow cytometry for IPFD – advantages and limits

Speakers: Sofia Ramstrom

Sofia Ramström

Dr Sofia Ramström is an Associate Professor at the School of Medical Sciences at Örebro University, Sweden. She received her PhD in Clinical Chemistry at Linköping University, Sweden in 2003, with a dissertation investigating the role of platelets in blood coagulation, combining techniques such as free oscillation rheometry and flow cytometry. After work in Dublin at the Royal College of Surgeons as a part of the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, and in the flow cytometry section at ICON Clinical Research, she returned to Sweden in 2011.

Her main research focus is about understanding how platelets affect blood coagulation, and especially the mechanisms governing the formation of platelet subpopulations, like the procoagulant platelets that play a vital role as catalysts of blood coagulation. Since 1999, an important component of her research has been to develop and evaluate new and innovative ways to study platelet activation and function, especially with flow cytometry, with the aim that these tests will also be able to come into clinical use. Clinical areas of interest include hematology, transfusion medicine and thoracic surgery. Sofia is currently the chair of the ISTH SSC on Platelets in Health and Disease (formerly called Platelet Physiology SSC).