The Alison Goodall Award recognises scientists at earlier stages of their careers. Alison is a Professor of Thrombosis and Haemostasis at the University of Leicester, who has worked for many years on the study of platelet biology in health and disease. Alison is an enthusiastic supporter of Early Career Researchers and has provided mentorship and guidance to many scientists and clinicians over the years. Therefore it is fitting that this award is named in her honour.

The award given to researchers at an early stage of their career who have made a significant advance in our understanding in the field of Platelets, Megakaryocytes, Thrombosis or Haemostasis. This could be via a landmark publication, fellowship, or through education and outreach activities. In the last few years Fraser has secured research funding, including a prestigious Sir Henry Wellcome fellowship, for his work, and published several high profile papers.

About Fraser

Fraser holds a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship entitled ‘Fibrin films at the crossroads of haemostasis, infection control and wound healing’ in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds. He previously undertook his PhD in this Department on “The role of fibrin clots in cardiovascular disease and infection control.” with Prof. Robert Ariëns as the primary supervisor, supported as a research associate (since
2012). Over this period, he has published 24 articles in leading journals in the field including JCI, Blood (x3), JTH (x6), Haematologica, ATVB, Blood Advances, Thr Res and Thromb Haemost. Three of the manuscripts have received 80 citations or more. This includes the seminal breakthrough article in JCI on fibrin films which was highlighted on the front cover of the journal.

In this article, Fraser characterises the nature of fibrin films, which have been seen by researchers for years and thought to be an artefact, and their physiological role in protecting against infection. This discovery has changed the field and was the basis of the Henry Wellcome Fellowship. Prof Ariëns is always the first to emphasise that this project was driven entirely by Fraser’s natural drive and inquisitive and questioning nature.

Fraser has shown strong supervision skills with his first PhD student, Ghadir Alkarithi, who is studying ‘the role of fibrin film in thrombosis and haemostasis’. Ms Alkarithi has been awarded consecutive prizes in the BSHT annual meeting (2022, 2023) for one of the top 5 scoring abstract from an ECR. Ms Alkarithi is also the lead author on an excellent review on heterogeneity in thrombus formation (published in ATVB in 2021, 34 citations).

Dr Macrae is an excellent communicator and gives fantastic presentations. He is warm, friendly, energetic and supportive of those around him, including other members of the Ariëns group. Fraser is a member and strong supporter of the Platelet Society. As one of the future leaders in this field, I am delighted to commend Dr Macrae for the award.

The photo below shows Fraser recieving his commemorative plaque from Professor Khalid Naseem (a former Platelet Society chair) and he also gave a guest lecture at the 2023 Platelet Society AGM.