Alexandra R. Lucas, MD

Alexandra R. Lucas, MD, FRCPC
Professor of Medicine
Ethel Smith Chair in Vasculitis Research
Director Vascular Research, Malcom Randall VA Medical Center

Email: alexandra.lucas@medicine.ufl.edu

TEL: (352) 273-9075
FAX: (352) 846-0314

Academic/Research Interests:

Dr. Lucas moved to the University of Florida in 2006_ from the Robarts Research Institute and University of Western Ontario in London ,Ontario, Canada, where she has been a principal investigator studying inflammation, specifically monocyte and T lymphocyte activation in vascular disease. Dr. Lucas is also co-inventor and co-founding scientist for Viron Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company that is now in clinical trial analyzing viral anti-inflammatory proteins as a new class of therapeutic agents.  Dr. Lucas is a practicing interventional cardiologist in addition to running an active basic research lab in vascular inflammatory research with bovver 100 paper and reviews and 16 patents published.  She has been an active member of the Canadian Society for Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis Board having also served as Editor-in-Chief  and serves on the American Heart Association grant panel.  She is additionally on the editorial board for several journals.  Dr. Lucas also directs an annual medical mission to Fte. Liberté in Haiti.

Clinical Interests:

Dr. Lucas’ clinical interests include vascular innate immune responses, unstable plaque, acute coronary syndromes, transplant vasculopathy, vasculitis, T lymphocyte, monocyte / macrophage, serpins, chemokines, apoptosis, optical analysis of vascular disease, and interventional cardiology.

Publications:

Chen H, Zheng D, Davids J, Bartee MY, Dai E, Liu L, Petrov L, Macaulay C, Thoburn R, Sobel E, Moyer R, McFadden G, Lucas A. Viral serpin therapeutics from concept to clinic. Methods Enzymol. 2011;499:301-29. 

Kennedy KL, Lucas AR, Wan W. Local Delivery of Therapeutics for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention. Curr Drug Deliv. 2011. 

Korol RM, Canham PB, Liu L, Viswanathan K, Ferguson GG, Hammond RR, Finlay HM, Baker HV, Lopez C, Lucas AR. Detection of Altered Extracellular Matrix in Surface Layers of Unstable Carotid Plaque: An Optical Spectroscopy, Birefringence and Microarray Genetic Analysis. Photochem Photobiol. 2011. 

Nahid MA, Rivera M, Lucas A, Chan EK, Kesavalu L. Polymicrobial infection with periodontal pathogens specifically enhances microRNA miR-146a in ApoE-/- mice during experimental periodontal disease. Infect Immun. 2011;79:1597-605. PMC3067556

Tardif JC, L’Allier PL, Gregoire J, Ibrahim R, McFadden G, Kostuk W, Knudtson M, Labinaz M, Waksman R, Pepine CJ, Macaulay C, Guertin MC, Lucas A. A randomized controlled, phase 2 trial of the viral serpin Serp-1 in patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Circ Cardiovasc Interv. 2010;3:543-8. 

Munuswamy-Ramanujam G, Dai E, Liu L, Shnabel M, Sun YM, Bartee M, Lomas DA, Lucas AR. Neuroserpin, a thrombolytic serine protease inhibitor (serpin), blocks transplant vasculopathy with associated modification of T-helper cell subsets. Thromb Haemost 2010;103:545-55.

Dai E, Liu LY, Wang H, McIvor D, Sun YM, Macaulay C, King E, Munuswamy-Ramanujam G, Bartee MY, Williams J, Davids J, Charo I, McFadden G, Esko JD, Lucas AR. Inhibition of chemokine-glycosaminoglycan interactions in donor tissue reduces mouse allograft vasculopathy and transplant rejection. PLoS One 2010;5:e10510.

Lucas A, Liu L, Dai E, Bot I, Viswanathan K, Munuswamy-Ramunujam G, Davids JA, Bartee MY, Richardson J, Christov A, Wang H, Macaulay C, Poznansky M, Zhong R, Miller L, Biessen E, Richardson M, Sullivan C, Moyer R, Hatton M, Lomas DA, McFadden G. The serpin saga; development of a new class of virus derived anti-inflammatory protein immunotherapeutics. Adv Exp Med Biol 2009;666:132-56.

Rahman MM, Lucas AR, McFadden G. Viral TNF inhibitors as potential therapeutics. Adv Exp Med Biol 2009;666:64-77.