Catherine Pauline Ma Hayward
Professor, Pathology & Molecular Medicine

Dr. Hayward’s research interests are in conducting bench to bedside studies of molecules important to blood clotting and vascular repair, with a major focus on platelets and platelet function disorders. Her group has discovered a new protein, named multimerin1, which functions as an adhesive protein in blood and blood vessels, and as a binding protein for coagulation factor V. Her team has studied the formation and functions of platelets and megakaryocytes, including how these cells are altered by disease. Her group described the first bleeding disorder associated with increased urokinase-type plasminogen activator, a condition known as the Quebec platelet disorder and identified the genetic cause (duplication of the uPA gene) and how it causes bleeding. She has studied clinical history assessment tools to evaluate bleeding disorders, and their associated bleeding risks. Her team is investigating the causes and manifestations of bleeding problems and platelet disorders.

Dr. Hayward’s research had been supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Hemophilia Society. She received the 1995 Governor General Gold Medal Award for her PhD studies, the Joe Doupe Young Investigator Award, the Gold Medal in Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the John Charles Polanyi Prize in Physiology and Medicine and was the first Canadian to receive an American Society of Hematology Scholar Award. She also received Career Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Hemostasis, and a Premier’s Research Excellence Award from the Government of Ontario. She has also received recognition as the 2013 International Society for Laboratory Hematology Berend Houwen Award, a 2014 AACC Outstanding Speaker Award and the 2016 International Society of Hematology BSHT Biggs McFarlane Plenary Lecture Award.