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    Yi Zhang (she/her/hers)

    MSc Candidate
    Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
    Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Yi Zhang is a current Master's student in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University working in Dr. Ishac Nazy’s Platelet Immunology laboratory. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo, where she studied Biochemistry with a focus on Biotechnology.

    Yi’s current research entails a comprehensive investigation on the role of the chemokine platelet factor 4 (PF4) in drug-induced autoimmune systemic clotting disorders, including heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) and vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), which are both lead by pathogenic antibodies against PF4-anionic complexes.

    At the poster session, Yi will compare the performance characteristics of two rapid automated diagnostic systems for detecting anti-PF4 antibodies in HIT based on a prospective patient cohort: the latex immunoturbidimetric assay and the chemiluminescence immunoassay to the gold-standard serotonin-release assay and the easily assessable enzyme immunoassay.

    This study will provide insights into the accuracy and precision of the automated diagnostic systems, as well as whether they can be effectively used to derive clinical decisions when other diagnostic methods are unavailable.

    Presentation(s):