Melvin Klegerman, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology)
The University of Texas Medical School at Houston

Dr. Klegerman received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1968 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Loyola University of Chicago in 1984.

For more than 30 years, he has conducted biomedical research focusing on immunochemistry, immunoassay development, and conjugation chemistry. For the past 20 years, Dr. Klegerman has been involved in a collaborative effort with cardiovascular researchers under the direction of Dr. David D. McPherson to develop targeted immunoliposomes for diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, joining the group when they moved to The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where he now is an associate professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases. As part of this effort, Dr. Klegerman founded two companies to develop the echogenic liposome technology into clinical products.

He is an author of 69 scientific papers, awardee of four patents, and coeditor of a textbook of pharmaceutical biotechnology (1992).

Ongoing Research Support

• 3R01 HL059586 McPherson (PI) 12/1/08–11/30/12
  NIH/NHLBI

  “Targeted Liposomes for Acoustic Cardiovascular Imaging”

  To optimize the highlighting and enhancing characteristics of our echogenic liposomal formulation in order to determine, quantitate, and characterize the stage, extent, and pathophysiologic development of atherosclerosis.
  Role: Co-Investigator

• 2R01 NS047603 Holland (PI) 2/1/09–1/31/13
  NIH/NINDS

  “Ultrasound-Assisted Thrombolysis for Stroke Therapy”

  The long term goal of this project is to develop an ultrasound-assisted thrombolysis system which delivers and enhances thrombolytic therapy in the brain and improves physiologic flow rapidly.
  Role: Co-Investigator

• 2R01 HL074002 McPherson (PI) 4/1/10–3/31/14
  NIH/NHLBI

  “Echogenic Targeted Liposomes for Transfection/Drug Delivery”

  The goal of this project is to optimize therapeutic loading of our liposomes, while retaining echogenic properties, quantitating echogenic properties, determining in vitro and in vivo therapeutic delivery and effect, and determining effect of ultrasound forces on improving therapeutic delivery/effect.
  Role: Co-Investigator

Selected Peer-reviewed Publications

1. Demos SM, Alkan-Onyuksel H, Kane BJ, Ramani K, Nagaraj A, Green R, Klegerman ME, McPherson DD. In Vivo Targeting of Acoustically Reflective Liposomes for Intravascular and Transvascular Ultrasonic Enhancement. J.Am Col Cardiol 1999; 33:867-75.
2. Klegerman ME, Hamilton AJ, Huang SL, Tiukinhoy SD, Khan AA, MacDonald RC, McPherson DD. A Quantitative Immunoblot Assay for Assessment of Liposomal Antibody Conjugation Efficiency. Anal Biochem 2002; 300:46-52.
3. Hamilton A, Rabbat M, Jain P, Belkind N, Huang SL, Nagaraj A, Klegerman M, MacDonald R, McPherson DD. A Physiological Flow Chamber Model to Define Intravascular Ultrasound Enhancement of Fibrin Using Echogenic Liposomes. Invest Radiol 2002; 37:215-21
4. Hamilton A, Huang SL, Warnick D, Stein A, Rabbat M, Madhav T, Kane B, Nagaraj A, Klegerman M, MacDonald R, McPherson D. Left Ventricular Thrombus Enhancement After Intravenous Injection of Echogenic Immunoliposomes: Studies in a New Experimental Model. Circulation 2002; 105:2772-78.
5. Tiukinhoy SD, Khan AA, Huang S, Klegerman ME, MacDonald RC, McPherson DD: Novel echogenic drug-immunoliposomes for drug delivery. Invest Radiol 2004; 39:104-10.
6. Hamilton A, Huang S, Warnick D, Rabbat M, Kane B, Nagaraj A, Klegerman M, McPherson D. Intravascular Ultrasound Molecular Imaging of Atheroma Components In Vivo. J Am Coll Cardiol 2004; 43: 453-60.
7. Klegerman ME, Huang S, Parikh D, Martinez J, Demos SM, Onyuksel HA, McPherson DD. Lipid Contribution to the Affinity of Antigen Association with Specific Antibodies Conjugated to Liposomes. Biochim Biophys Acta 2007; 1768:1703-16.
8. Tiukinhoy-Laing SD, Huang S, Klegerman M, Holland CK, McPherson DD. Ultrasound-Facilitated Thrombolysis Using Tissue-Plasminogen Activator-Loaded Echogenic Liposomes. Thromb Res 2007; 119:777-84.
9. Tiukinhoy-Laing SD, Buchanan K, Parikh D, Huang S, MacDonald RC, McPherson DD, Klegerman ME. Fibrin Targeting of Tissue Plasminogen Activator-Loaded Echogenic Liposomes. J Drug Target 2007; 15:109-14.
10. Klegerman ME, Zou Y, McPherson DD. Fibrin-Targeting of Echogenic Liposomes with Inactivated Tissue Plasminogen Activator. J Liposome Res 2008; 18:95-112.
11. Klegerman ME, Wassler M, Huang SL, Zou Y, Kim H, Shelat HS, Holland CK, Geng YJ, McPherson DD. Liposomal modular complexes for simultaneous targeted delivery of bioactive gases and therapeutics. J Control Rel 2010;142:326-31.
12. Hitchcock KE, Caudell DN, Sutton JT, Klegerman ME, Vela D, Pyne-Geithman GJ, Abruzzo T, Geng YJ, McPherson DD, Holland CK. Ultrasound-enhanced delivery of targeted echogenic liposomes in a novel ex vivo mouse aorta model. J Control Rel 2010; 144:288-95.
13. Laing ST, Kim H, Parikh D, Huang S, Klegerman ME, McPherson DD. Ultrasound-mediated delivery to smooth muscle cells in vivo using echogenic liposomes. J. Liposome Res. 2010; 20:160-67.
14. Smith DAB, Vaidya SS, Kopechek JA, Huang SL, Klegerman ME, McPherson DD, Holland CK. Ultrasound triggered release of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator from echogenic liposomes. Ultrasound Med Biol 2010;36:145-57.
15. Herbst SM, Klegerman ME, Kim H, Shelat H, Moody MR, Yang CM, Zou Y, Club FJ, Kraemer DC, Holland CK, McPherson DD, Geng YJ. Targeted delivery of bone marrow stem cells to atherosclerotic aorta using bifunctional echogenic liposomes. Mol Pharm 2010;7:3-11.
16. Kim H, Moody MR, Laing ST, Kee PH, Huang SL, Klegerman ME, McPherson DD. In vivo volumetric intravascular ultrasound visualization of early/inflammatory arterial atheroma using targeted echogenic immunoliposomes. Invest Radiol 2010;45:685-91.