A group of biophysicists, including representatives from MIPT, has developed a mathematical model of arterial thrombus formation, which is the main cause of heart attacks and strokes. The scientists described the process of platelet aggregation as being similar to the popular video game Tetris and derived equations that allowed them to reproduce the wave process of platelet aggregate formation in a blood vessel.

Researchers from the Dmitry Rogachev Federal Research and Clinical Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology (FRCC PHOI), the Center for Theoretical Problems of Physico-Chemical Pharmacology, MIPT, Moscow State University, the Institute for Problems of Mechanical Engineering (St Petersburg), and the Free University of Berlin described the new model in the journal PLOS ONE. When discussing the development of the model and the members of the research team, Mikhail Panteleev, one of the authors of the publication, said: "Fazly Ataullakhanov and I formulated the problem and derived the equation, and Evgenia Babushkina (now a graduate student in Berlin), under the guidance of her mentor Nikolay Bessonov, developed solution methods for the two-dimensional case taking into account the changing hydrodynamics of the flow in which the thrombus is formed. She also performed all the simulations and analyses. Fazly and I are professors of the Department of Translational and Regenerative Medicine of MIPT's Faculty of Biological and Medical Physics, which is based at FRCC PHOI".

Develpoment of a continuous adsorption equation under assumption that thrombus formation occurs in the same way as the tiles become stacked up in the classic video game Tetris is a key aspect of the new model. In Tetris, the tiles either drop down onto a flat surface, or become attached to parts sticking out from the rest of the block. The only difference between thrombus formation and the game is that when a layer is complete, it does not disappear, therefore as time passes a thrombus is capable of obstructing the space it is in. In addition, the falling shapes are always the same: the model describes the aggregation of platelets, specialized blood cells.