Studies of protein adsorption relevant to blood compatible materials

The ultimate objective of the work in our laboratory is to develop blood compatible materials. To this end two principal lines of research are currently being pursued:Materials development per se, with current effort concentrated on polyurethanes. This work will not be discussed in the present paper.The study of blood-material interactions, the main focus of the present discussion. We do this type of work on the basis that rational design of biomaterials does not seem possible in an information ‘vacuum’. We need to have the information required to understand the mechanisms of coagulation, thrombus formation and other blood-surface interactions.