Dr. Staber is a physician scientist with a basic, translational, and clinical focus on improving treatment options for patients with inherited or acquired coagulation disorders. She became intrigued by the finding that venous thromboembolism, such as deep vein thrombus and pulmonary embolus, is 75 times more prevalent in children with CF than in the general population. She is testing the hypothesis that loss of CFTR impairs platelet function. In collaboration with Dr. McCray, preliminary studies using platelets from CFTR null pigs demonstrated that CF platelets are hyperactive at birth, and this could potentially contribute to the documented increase in thrombotic risk in CF.