Charles T. Esmon receives the2013 Grant Medasl for oustanding research accomplisments and service to ISTH

The ISTH is pleased to announce that
Charles T. Esmon at the Coagulation Biology Laboratory at the Oklahoma Medical
Research Foundation in Oklahoma City,
USA, has become the latest recipient of
the prestigious Robert P. Grant Medal,
the highest award of the ISTH.
In the 1970s, Esmon was an assistant
professor at the University of Oklahoma,
where he has now been for more than
30 years. He was continuing his research
on factor V. Esmon’s work to isolate and
purify factor V resonated throughout
our field, and researchers later used his
techniques to isolate factor VIII. In addition, his research on sepsis and protein
C led to the discovery that thrombin,
bound to a specific protein on the blood
vessel wall, activated protein C to prevent clotting, a major advance in the
understanding of blood coagulation with
several consequences for prevention and
therapy of thromboembolic diseases.
More recently, Esmon’s lab identified the
endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR), the
target for protein C. They found that high
levels of EPCR reduce clotting and inflammation, similar to high levels of activated
protein C. Esmon and his lab are deeply
involved in researching activated protein
C and its effects on inflammation.