Earl Davie’s discovery of the “waterfall cascade” sequence for blood clotting in 1964 paved the way for our understanding of the biochemical events leading to fibrin formation.  This basic mechanism continues to be the basis for currently used diagnostic tests and therapies. Davie met Bert Vallee in the early 1950s and remained a close friend of Bert and Kuggie thereafter. One of the early VVPs, he went to Hans Jornvall’s lab at the Karolinska Institutet in 1999. “Uninterrupted time was, in many ways, the single most important aspect of my stay at the Karolinska. Free from the usual distractions of telephone calls, administrative duties, and teaching obligations, I was able to spend nearly three hours every morning thinking and planning both new and old projects underway in our laboratory, which also made it possible to clarify new approaches for our future research. It was a very beneficial and exciting experience in my scientific career.”   

Earl W Davie, MD, PhD Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, University of Washington http://www.thevalleefoundation.org/programs/vvp/earl-w-davie-md-phd