Blood

What was the first time that you have seen your own blood? Chances are that you bumped into a table as a child, or a physician took a blood sample from your arm when you were sick. Anomalies in blood flow are associated with many prevailing diseases, such as heart attack, stroke and malaria. These diseases threaten millions of lives globally each year.

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes, are the number 1 killer in the world with nearly 18 million deaths each year. Aneurysms, outward bulges of blood vessel walls, are less known examples of cardiovascular diseases. Still, nearly 50,000 people annually suffer from ruptured aneurysms in Europe alone, and more than half of these people die.