Prof Marlien Pieters is a Professor at the Centre of Excellence for Nutrition, North-West University, where she heads up the Nutrition and Haemostasis sub-programme.
Following the completion of her PhD in 2002, she did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Free University of Amsterdam. She has a C2 NRF rating. Prof Pieters heads an international task force on the standardisation of fibrin network structure methodology and was elected as a Co-Chair of the FXIII and Fibrinogen Scientific and Standardisation Sub-committee of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis in July 2013. In 2014, she became a Board Member of the International Fibrinogen Research Society. Prof Pieters was awarded the African Union (AU) - The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Young Scientists National Award in the area of Earth and Life Sciences in 2015.
Prof Pieters' Research focuses on the effect of lifestyle modifications on fibrin clot properties as a Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk factor. This is largely investigated in clinical and epidemiological studies and is sub-divided into two smaller focuses in an attempt to better characterize fibrin clot properties, both as an outcome and an exposure.
First, the influence of lifestyle and genetic factors and their interaction on fibrinogen and fibrin network properties is investigated. Secondly, they investigate the role of fibrinogen and fibrin clot properties in CVD. An important fibrin clot property is the speed with which a clot is lysed. Since clot lysis is also influenced by factors other than fibrin clot structure, their work also includes investigations into plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), the main inhibitor of the fibrinolytic pathway in human blood.
Since CVD was previously uncommon in populations in developing countries, very little research has thus far been performed on this topic and it is not clear whether these populations have the same risk factor profile as individuals of European descent, given genetic and environmental differences. This is of extreme importance as it forms the cornerstone of treatment, significantly impacting prevention and treatment strategies.
