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Research Overview

The Center for Platelet Research Studies (CPRS) is an internationally recognized, multidisciplinary center for the study of platelets by state-of-the-art methods. The CPRS is an integrated research group that performs basic bench research, translational research, and clinical research on platelets and related aspects of hemostasis and thrombosis.

Research Background

Dr. Alan D. Michelson is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, Emeritus at Harvard Medical School. He is the Director Emeritus of the Center for Platelet Research Studies and the former Director of the Thrombosis and Anticoagulation Program at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.

Dr. Michelson is the editor of the textbook Platelets (Elsevier/Academic Press), which integrates the entire field of platelet biology, pathophysiology and clinical medicine into a comprehensive source of knowledge about platelets for clinicians, pathologists, and scientists. The first edition of Platelets, published in 2002, was the winner of the Best Book in Medical Science award from the Association of American Publishers and was called “landmark” by the New England Journal of Medicine. The third edition of Platelets, published in 2013, was the winner of the Highly Commended Prize in the category of Internal Medicine, British Medical Association (BMA) Medical Book Awards. The 67-chapter, 1268-page fourth edition of Platelets was published in 2019 and has been translated into Chinese.

Dr. Michelson received the 1st Annual Esteemed Career Award from the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) in 2019. He is a past Chairman of the Platelet Physiology Scientific Subcommittee of the ISTH. Dr. Michelson has been an invited participant in numerous National Institutes of Health working groups, international workshops and consensus conferences. Since 2006 he has been the co-organizer and co-chair of the biennial International Platelets Symposium.

Dr. Michelson has published more than 500 original research articles, invited reviews and original research abstracts. His publications have been cited over 20,000 times in the medical and scientific literature. Dr. Michelson has been the principal investigator on more than 100 research grants. He has been an invited speaker at over 200 major medical conferences worldwide. Dr. Michelson is an inventor on two awarded and three provisional U.S. patents. He has been a consultant and served on scientific advisory boards for numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

After receiving his medical degree with honors from the University of Adelaide, Australia in 1974, Dr. Michelson continued his medical and research training on a Fulbright Scholarship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Michelson was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by Harvard University in 2010.

Selected Publications

  1. Michelson AD (editor). Platelets, Fourth Edition. Chinese translation. People's Medical Publishing House, Beijing, China, 67 chapters, 845 pages, 2022
  2. Neculaes B, Frelinger AL III, Gerrits AJ, Gremmel T, Forde EE, Klopman S, Carmichael SL, Michelson AD. Activation of platelet-rich plasma by pulse electric fields: voltage, pulse width and calcium concentration can be used to control and tune the release of growth factors, serotonin and hemoglobin. PLoS ONE 2021;16(4): e0249209
  3. Croteau SE, Frelinger AL, Gerrits AJ, Michelson AD. Decreased platelet surface phosphatidylserine predicts increased bleeding in patients with severe factor VIII deficiency. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2021;19:976-982
  4. Michelson AD (editor). Platelets, Fourth Edition. Elsevier/Academic Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 67 chapters, 1268 pages, 2019
  5. Michelson AD, Smolensky Koganov E, Forde EE, Carmichael SL, Frelinger AL III. Avatrombopag increases platelet count but not platelet activation in patients with thrombocytopenia resulting from liver disease. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2018;16:2515–2519
  6. Haynes RL, Frelinger AL, Giles EK, Goldstein RD, Trana H, Kozakewich HP, Haas EA, Gerrits AJ, Menae OJ, Trachtenberg FL, Paterson DS, Berry GT, Adeli K, Kinney HC, Michelson AD. High serum serotonin in sudden infant death syndrome. Proceeedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. (PNAS) 2017;114(29):7695-7700
  7. Michelson AD, Bhatt DL. How I use laboratory monitoring of antiplatelet therapy. Blood 2017;130(6):713-721
  8. Gremmel T, Frelinger AL, Michelson AD. Platelet physiology. Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis 2016;42:191-204
  9. Frelinger AL, Grace RF, Gerrits AJ, Berny-Lang MA., Brown T, Carmichael SL, Neufeld EJ, Michelson AD. Platelet function tests, independent of platelet count, are associated with bleeding severity in ITP. Blood 2015;126:873-879
  10. Cattaneo M, Cerletti C, Harrison P, Hayward CPM, Kenny D, Nugent D, Nurden P, Rao AK, Schmaier AH, Watson SP, Lussana F, Pugliano MT, Michelson AD. Recommendations for the standardization of light transmission aggregometry: a consensus of the working party from the platelet physiology subcommittee of SSC/ISTH. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2013;11:1183-1189
  11. Frelinger, AL, Bhatt DL, Lee RD, Mulford DJ, Wu J, Nudurupati S, Nigam A, Lampa M, Brooks JK, Barnard MR, Michelson AD. Clopidogrel pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics vary widely despite exclusion or control of polymorphisms (CYP2C19, ABCB1, PON1), noncompliance, diet, smoking, co-medications (including proton pump inhibitors), and pre-existent variability in platelet function. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2013;61:872-879. PMID: 23333143

Publications