Episode notes
Jacquie tells the story of how she discovered that platelets, which are responsible for blood coagulation, can play a significant role in autoimmune diseases.
When she was researching multiple sclerosis, she noticed platelets crossing from the blood stream into brain tissue.
There are around 80 autoimmune diseases the five most well known are rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and coeliac disease. To give you a sense of the enormity of the problem, these five alone affect an estimated 145 million people worldwide.
Debilitating and degenerative, there are currently no cures.
However, this discovery can open the opportunity to develop new drugs for not only multiple sclerosis but many other auto immune diseases.
20:22