I am a Professor of Nutrition and serve as Director of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Extramural Unit: Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease Research. The overall aim of the Unit is to directly contribute to new clinical and epidemiological knowledge within the field of CVD risk in different population groups in South Africa in order to alleviate the CVD burden by facilitating more effective awareness, treatment, and prevention programs in the future. CVD was previously uncommon in Black South Africans and very little research has thus far been performed on this topic. It is not clear whether the Black South African population has CVD risk factors and pathophysiology similar to the South African population of European descent.

My research is focused 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. Second, we 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, our work also includes investigations into biomarkers such as plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), the main inhibitor of the fibrinolytic pathway in human blood. 

Unit Director: Prof Marlien Pieters
Tel office: 018 299 2462
Email: marlien.pieters@nwu.ac.za