Blood Clots Are Ready for Their Close-Up [Slide Show]

A new cutting-edge computer simulation of clot formation could improve treatments for stroke and heart attacks

Clinging to Life: Millions of platelets cling to a damaged arterial wall in this multi-scale visualization of a blood clot. The yellow particles are activated, clot-forming platelets whereas the red ones are nonactivated, free-flowing platelets. Green arrows depict overall blood flow through the artery. Courtesy of Joseph A. Insley and Michael E. Papka, Argonne National Laboratory/Leopold Grinberg, Brown University
Follow the Leader: Activated cells (blue) adhere to the walls of a blood vessel, stopping non-active cells (red) and leading to a stoppage of blood flow. The clotting process can be lifesaving in the case of injury. It is triggered when normally flowing blood is exposed to collagen and other substances present in a ruptured vessel. Courtesy of Joseph A. Insley and Michael E. Papka, Argonne National Laboratory/Leopold Grinberg, Brown University
First of Many: A single red blood cell adheres to an arterial wall in this visualization of a ruptured aneurysm. The colored lines represent the varying speed of blood flow around the cell. Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory and Brown University
The Big Picture: The four main arteries in the brain's circulatory system are pictured on the left (the right and left carotid, basilar and cerebral). At the top right is the location of an aneurysm researchers modeled to show platelet and blood cell aggregation forming a blood clot. Courtesy of Joseph A. Insley and Michael E. Papka, Argonne National Laboratory/Leopold Grinberg, Brown University
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Forest and the Trees: Blood flowing through the major brain arteries and an aneurysm is depicted on the left. The zoomed-in image (right) shows microscopic platelets and blood cells aggregating at the site of a ruptured aneurysm. Unlike previous simulations that could examine one or the other, Grinberg's visualization gives researchers a complete picture of how a blood clot forms at these two very different scales. Courtesy of J. R. Madsen, Harvard Medical School
An Unprecedented Visualization: Multi-scale modeling helps scientists forecast weather, model tornado formation and understand complex biological processes that have important features at multiple scales. Researchers at Brown University and Argonne National Laboratory used more than 300,000 computer processors to create this parallel computing model that simulates a blood clot forming in a ruptured aneurysm. Courtesy of Joseph A. Insley and Michael E. Papka, Argonne National Laboratory/Leopold Grinberg, Brown University

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