Honorary Faculty - Willem Ouwehand

Willem's team specialises in studies on the formation and function of platelets with a focus on their role in maintaining haemostasis and thrombus formation in the arterial circulation.

He has collaborated with teams from the Sanger Institute since 2004, initially on exome sequencing and more recently on genome-wide association studies and functional genomics studies in zebrafish. He works most closely with the teams of Nicole Soranzo and Panos Deloukas in human genetics and the zebrafish laboratory of Derek Stemple.

Willem graduated with an MA and PhD from Amsterdam University in 1984. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the immunology of platelets in Amsterdam, he moved to Cambridge in 1989. Initially he continued his work on the immunology of platelets and engineered human phage antibodies against platelet alloantigens and other cell surface molecules. In 2004 he established the Bloodomics consortium that aims to delineate the relationship between sequence variation and the platelet phenotypes of function, volume and count. These studies are relevant to human health because platelets are key cells underlying thrombus formation after plaque rupture in arteries and contribute to heart attacks and stroke, respectively.

Selected Publications

• A genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 22 loci associated with eight hematological parameters in the HaemGen consortium.

  Soranzo N, Spector TD, Mangino M, Kühnel B, Rendon A, Teumer A, Willenborg C, Wright B, Chen L, Li M, Salo P, Voight BF, Burns P, Laskowski RA, Xue Y, Menzel S, Altshuler D, Bradley JR, Bumpstead S, Burnett MS, Devaney J, Döring A, Elosua R, Epstein SE, Erber W, Falchi M, Garner SF, Ghori MJ, Goodall AH, Gwilliam R, Hakonarson HH, Hall AS, Hammond N, Hengstenberg C, Illig T, König IR, Knouff CW, McPherson R, Melander O, Mooser V, Nauck M, Nieminen MS, O'Donnell CJ, Peltonen L, Potter SC, Prokisch H, Rader DJ, Rice CM, Roberts R, Salomaa V, Sambrook J, Schreiber S, Schunkert H, Schwartz SM, Serbanovic-Canic J, Sinisalo J, Siscovick DS, Stark K, Surakka I, Stephens J, Thompson JR, Völker U, Völzke H, Watkins NA, Wells GA, Wichmann HE, Van Heel DA, Tyler-Smith C, Thein SL, Kathiresan S, Perola M, Reilly MP, Stewart AF, Erdmann J, Samani NJ, Meisinger C, Greinacher A, Deloukas P, Ouwehand WH and Gieger C

  Nature genetics 2009;41;11;1182-90

  PUBMED: 19820697; PMC: 3108459; DOI: 10.1038/ng.467

• A functional genomics approach reveals novel quantitative trait loci associated with platelet signaling pathways.

  Jones CI, Bray S, Garner SF, Stephens J, de Bono B, Angenent WG, Bentley D, Burns P, Coffey A, Deloukas P, Earthrowl M, Farndale RW, Hoylaerts MF, Koch K, Rankin A, Rice CM, Rogers J, Samani NJ, Steward M, Walker A, Watkins NA, Akkerman JW, Dudbridge F, Goodall AH, Ouwehand WH and Bloodomics Consortium

  Blood 2009;114;7;1405-16

  PUBMED: 19429868; DOI: 10.1182/blood-2009-02-202614

• Functional genomics in zebrafish permits rapid characterization of novel platelet membrane proteins.

  O'Connor MN, Salles II, Cvejic A, Watkins NA, Walker A, Garner SF, Jones CI, Macaulay IC, Steward M, Zwaginga JJ, Bray SL, Dudbridge F, de Bono B, Goodall AH, Deckmyn H, Stemple DL, Ouwehand WH and Bloodomics Consortium

  Blood 2009;113;19;4754-62

  PUBMED: 19109564; PMC: 2680375; DOI: 10.1182/blood-2008-06-162693

• Genome-wide association study of 14,000 cases of seven common diseases and 3,000 shared controls.

  Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium

  Nature 2007;447;7145;661-78

  PUBMED: 17554300; PMC: 2719288; DOI: 10.1038/nature05911

Related links:

• Ouwehand lab
• Bloodomics