works

Galleries and Reading Room

Library

Wellcome Café

Wellcome Kitchen

Wellcome Shop

To make your visit as safe and enjoyable as possible, you’ll need to follow our safety measures inside our venue, including wearing a face covering unless you’re exempt. Find out how we're keeping you safe. You no longer need to book a ticket to enter the museum or library.

We’re undertaking research with website visitors to find out some more about you and what you thought about your visit. This survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time!

What brought you to our website today?

Scanning electron microscope image of blood clot, showing new cells under fibrin clot. Fibrin also called Factor 1a acts as a mesh and forms blood clots (with platelets) to trap blood cells and prevent further loss of blood as the wound heals.

Fibrin blood clot

Scanning electron micrograph of red blood corpuscles and a single white blood cell entangled in the fibrin mesh of a clot, computer-coloured red/yellow.

SEM of blood corpuscles in clot.

Scanning electron micrograph of red blood corpuscles, very close up, computer-coloured red.

SEM of red blood corpuscles, close-up

Scanning electron microscope image of blood clot at edge of graft.

SEM of blood clot at edge of graft

Scanning electron micrograph of red blood corpuscles and at least one white blood cell entangled in the fibrin mesh of a clot, computer-coloured mauve.

Scanning electron microscope image of blood clot, high power, showing a white blood cell
in the centre. Biomedical Image Awards 1999.

Electron micrograph of blood clot,high power

Colour-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of a blood clot, with squamous tissue visible beneath. As a blood clot on a surface injury dries out it forms a protective scab over the wound allowing new skin to grow underneath.

Blood clot forming over a wound

Colour-enhanced image of platelets (green) and red blood cells. Platelets are necessary for the blood clotting process and are generated from large cells called megakaryocytes. Neither platelets nor mature red blood cells contain nuclei.

Platelets and red blood cells

This image shows the components of a blood clot. Clotting of the blood is an important process that helps the body repair after injury. The blood is composed of red blood cells, which carry oxygen (shown in red), white blood cells that help fight infection (not present in this image) and platelets that are crucial in the clotting process. 

Platelets travel to the injured area to form a plug. Once there, they are involved in activating clotting factors, the main one being fibrin. Fibrin is a protein that crosslinks with itself to form a mesh that makes up the final blood clot (showns in this image as a string-like mesh).


A blood clot is also known as a thrombus and if a thrombus occurs when it is not required it can have serious medical consequences, such as a stroke or heart attack.

Blood clot

Scanning electron microscope image of blood clot, showing new cells under fibrin clot.

Wellcome uses cookies.

More filters

Active filters:

Fibrin blood clot

SEM of blood corpuscles in clot.

SEM of red blood corpuscles, close-up

SEM of blood clot at edge of graft

SEM of blood corpuscles in clot.

Electron micrograph of blood clot,high power

Blood clot forming over a wound

Platelets and red blood cells

Blood clot

SEM of blood clot, new cells under fibrin

Stay in the know

Wellcome collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times

Wellcome uses cookies.

Search the collections

More filters

Active filters:

Fibrin blood clot

SEM of blood corpuscles in clot.

SEM of red blood corpuscles, close-up

SEM of blood clot at edge of graft

SEM of blood corpuscles in clot.

Electron micrograph of blood clot,high power

Blood clot forming over a wound

Platelets and red blood cells

Blood clot

SEM of blood clot, new cells under fibrin

Stay in the know

Wellcome collectionWellcome Collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times

Wellcome collection