Blood health company Versiti Blood Research Institute reported on Thursday the receipt of a five-year grant, valued at USD13.2m, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue its research into the most common and undiagnosed bleeding disorder, von Willebrand disease (VWD).

The VWD research project is focused on identifying changes to the von Willebrand factor and bleeding symptoms in patients over time and determining additional molecular causes for the disease.

Effective March 2019 and through February 2024, Versiti has signed research collaborations with Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, the University of Colorado, Washington University in St. Louis as well as ten clinical haemostasis centres across North America.

Versiti Blood Research Institute's senior investigator Dr Robert Montgomery is also part of a larger effort called The Zimmerman Programme on the Biology of VWD. The institute has contributed research through the programme for more than a decade.