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Professor Beth Psaila: Platelets are Acting as Sentinels in the Blood

Professor Beth Psaila/LinkedIn

Oct 1, 2025, 10:28

Professor Beth Psaila: Platelets are Acting as Sentinels in the Blood

Cancer Research UK (CRUK) shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Can the blood’s natural clean-up system help us detect cancer earlier?

Seven years ago, we gave Professor Beth Psaila funding to find out. Now, she’s uncovered a potentially transformative insight.

Psaila‘s team have found that platelets, best known for their role in clotting, also act as biological scavengers. They move through the bloodstream sucking up fragments of DNA, including those released by cancer cells.

It’s a discovery that could make liquid biopsies even more sensitive and effective for early detection. With a modest adjustment to how blood samples are processed, we may be able to harness platelets to detect cancer at its earliest stages, when treatment is most likely to succeed.

“Platelets are acting as sentinels in the blood,” explains Professor Psaila. “They have a unique ability to hoover up things they encounter.”

This research opens new avenues for innovation in early cancer detection and exemplifies how fundamental science can lead to life-saving clinical applications.

Find out more in the article here”

Professor Beth Psaila: Platelets are Acting as Sentinels in the Blood