Steve Watson

Professor

Prof. Steve Watson is a British Heart Foundation Professor in the University of Birmingham, UK, and a Coen Hemker Visiting Professor in Maastricht. He is head of the Birmingham Platelet group which consists of ten Principal Investigators and 40 researchers investigating platelet and megakaryocyte biology, including cell signalling, genetics of bleeding disordes, mouse models of thrombosis and early phase clinical trials. Steve studied Pharmacology in the University of Leeds and a PhD in receptor pharmacology in Cambridge. He undertook postdoctoral studies in Burroughs Wellcome, North Carolina, USA, with Eduardo Lapetina where his love of platelets was born. He was a fellow in Pharmacology in Oxford for 20 years before moving to Birmingham in 2004. He is a member of the ISTH Council.

Steve’s major line of research is the mechanism of platelet activation by platelet glycoprotein receptors, focusing on GPVI and CLEC-2, and the possible targeting of both receptors in thrombosis and thrombo-inflammatory disorders. Steve uses super-resolution and other forms of advanced microscopy to study the activation of GPVI by collagen and fibrin, and CLEC-2 by its only known endogenous ligand, podoplanin. Steve is head of the Marie-Curie ITN ‘Targeting platelet adhesion receptors in arteriothrombosis (TAPAS)’ which consists of 15 PhD students between the Universities of Birmingham, Maastricht, Reading, Santiago and Wurzburg, with Alacris (Berlin) and ISAS (Dortmund).