X. Long Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., has accepted an invitation to serve as a member of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Study Section, in the Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health.
A study section works as a group to review the highly competitive grant applications submitted to the NIH. Each year, the NIH recruits more than 20,000 independent experts from the scientific community to judge more than 80,000 NIH grant applications. These experts provide timely and fair peer reviews, so that NIH can fund the best research. The NIH has more than 170 study sections, from AIDS to Xenobiotic and Nutrient Disposition.
Zheng — an expert in acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, or TTP — is the Robert B. Adams Endowed Professor and director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Pathology. He was recruited to UAB from the University of Pennsylvania in February 2015.
While serving on a study section takes a major commitment of professional time and energy, it contributes to the national biomedical research effort. Reviewers make recommendations on grant applications to the appropriate NIH national advisory council or board, and survey the status of research in their fields of science.
Zheng will serve on his study section for six years, ending June 2024.
The Hemostasis and Thrombosis group reviews applications involving basic and applied aspects of the blood and vascular elements associated with hemostasis, thrombosis and interactions with blood vessels, in both normal processes and disease processes such as TTP. Hemostasis describes the mechanisms that work together to stop bleeding, which is the first step of wound healing. Thrombosis is the formation of a clot inside a blood vessel, creating a dangerous blockage to the flow of blood.