faculty photo

Oscar Armando Marcos Contreras, PharmD, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
Department: Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics

Contact information
Smilow Center for Translational Research
University of Pennsylvania
The Perelman School of Medicine
TRC 10-131
3400 Civic Center Blvd., Bldg 421
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Education:
PharmD
University of Alcala, 2004.
PhD (Cardiovascular pharmacology and imaging)
National Center for Cardiovascular Research and University of Alcala, 2011.
Post-Graduate Training
Postdoctoral fellow, INSERM unit (919) Serine Proteases and Physiopathology of the Neurovascular Unit (France). , 2011-2012.
Postdoctoral fellow, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 2013-2016.
Postdoctoral fellow, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 2016-2018.
Permanent link
 
> Perelman School of Medicine   > Faculty   > Details

Description of Research Expertise

For my entire scientific career, I have been oriented in translational research of drug delivery systems for the treatment and diagnosis of thrombotic and hemostatic disorders. My PhD was focused on the study of pulmonary embolism and the use of red blood cells as thromboprophylactic carriers for fibrinolytics. I have completed 3 postdoctoral fellowships, with diverse but complementary research directions. First, I joined Dr. Denis Vivien’s group at INSERM to study stroke, molecular imaging, and the implications of tPA in blood-brain barrier leakage using different murine models of stroke (thrombotic and hemorrhagic). My time in this lab spurred my interest in the fragile equilibrium of the hemostatic system. To further extend my expertise in hemostasis, I joined the lab of Dr. Katherine High and Dr Paris Margaritis at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where I studied gene therapy for congenital bleeding disorders, specifically hemophilia and FVII deficiency. Realizing that systemic effects may increase the unwanted side effects, I wanted to explore the possibility of combining my previous experience in thrombotic/hemorrhagic disorders and gene therapy with drug targeting strategies to achieve local delivery. In 2016, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Vladimir Muzykantov (which has been a leading lab for over 30 years in targeted drug delivery to the vasculature) at the University of Pennsylvania, where I initiated a line of research aimed on developing drug delivery systems targeted to the inflamed brain for the treatment and diagnosis of acute neurovascular inflammation. With the support of Dr. Muzykantov, I was awarded a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association in 2019. In July 2020, I was promoted to Research Assistant Professor, where I continue my independent studies utilizing drug targeting strategies to achieve selective drug targeting and gene delivery to the brain.

Selected Publications

Marcos-Contreras OA, Myerson JW, Nong J, Brenner JS, Muzykantov VR, Glassman PM.: Effective Prevention of Arterial Thrombosis with Albumin-Thrombin Inhibitor Conjugates. Mol Pharm 20: 5476-5485, Nov 2023.

Nong J, Glassman PM, Myerson JW, Zuluaga-Ramirez V, Rodriguez-Garcia A, Mukalel A, Omo-Lamai S, Walsh LR, Zamora ME, Gong X, Wang Z, Bhamidipati K, Kiseleva RY, Villa CH, Greineder CF, Kasner SE, Weissman D, Mitchell MJ, Muro S, Persidsky Y, Brenner JS, Muzykantov VR, Marcos-Contreras OA.: Targeted Nanocarriers Co-Opting Pulmonary Intravascular Leukocytes for Drug Delivery to the Injured Brain. ACS Nano 17: 13121-13136, Jul 2023.

Reyes-Esteves S, Nong J, Glassman PM, Omo-Lamai S, Ohashi S, Myerson JW, Zamora ME, Ma X, Kasner SE, Sansing L, Muzykantov VR, Marcos-Contreras OA, Brenner JS.: Targeted drug delivery to the brain endothelium dominates over passive delivery via vascular leak in experimental intracerebral hemorrhage. J Control Release 356: 185-195, April 2023.

Glassman PM, Villa CH, Marcos-Contreras OA, Hood ED, Walsh LR, Greineder CF, Myerson JW, Shuvaeva T, Puentes L, Brenner JS, Siegel DL, Muzykantov VR.: Targeted In Vivo Loading of Red Blood Cells Markedly Prolongs Nanocarrier Circulation. Bioconjug Chem 33: 1286-1294, Jul 2022.

Parhiz H, Brenner JS, Patel PN, Papp TE, Shahnawaz H, Li Q, Shi R, Zamora ME, Yadegari A, Marcos-Contreras OA, Natesan A, Pardi N, Shuvaev VV, Kiseleva R, Myerson JW, Uhler T, Riley RS, Han X, Mitchell MJ, Lam K, Heyes J, Weissman D, Muzykantov VR.: Added to pre-existing inflammation, mRNA-lipid nanoparticles induce inflammation exacerbation (IE). J Control Release 344: 50-61, April 2022.

Ferguson LT, Hood ED, Shuvaeva T, Shuvaev VV, Basil MC, Wang Z, Nong J, Ma X, Wu J, Myerson JW, Marcos-Contreras OA, Katzen J, Carl JM, Morrisey EE, Cantu E, Villa CH, Mitragotri S, Muzykantov VR, Brenner JS.: Dual Affinity to RBCs and Target Cells (DART) Enhances Both Organ- and Cell Type-Targeting of Intravascular Nanocarriers. ACS Nano 16: 4666-4683, Mar 2022.

Myerson JW, Patel PN, Rubey KM, Zamora ME, Zaleski MH, Habibi N, Walsh LR, Lee YW, Luther DC, Ferguson LT, Marcos-Contreras OA, Glassman PM, Mazaleuskaya LL, Johnston I, Hood ED, Shuvaeva T, Wu J, Zhang HY, Gregory JV, Kiseleva RY, Nong J, Grosser T, Greineder CF, Mitragotri S, Worthen GS, Rotello VM, Lahann J, Muzykantov VR, Brenner JS.: Supramolecular arrangement of protein in nanoparticle structures predicts nanoparticle tropism for neutrophils in acute lung inflammation. Nat Nanotechnol 17(1): 86-97, Jan 2022.

Kiseleva RY, Glassman PG, LeForte KM, Walsh LR, Villa CH, Shuvaev VV, Myerson JW, Aprelev PA, Marcos-Contreras OA, Muzykantov VR, Greineder CF.: Bivalent engagement of endothelial surface antigens is critical to prolonged surface targeting and protein delivery in vivo. FASEB J 34(9): 11577-11593, Sept 2020.

Glassman PM, Walsh LR, Villa CH, Marcos-Contreras OA, Hood ED, Muzykantov VR, Greineder CF.: Molecularly Engineered Nanobodies for Tunable Pharmacokinetics and Drug Delivery. Bioconjug Chem 31: 1144-1155, Apr 2020.

Oscar A. Marcos-Contreras, Colin F. Greineder, Raisa Yu Kiseleva, Hamideh Parhiz, Landis R. Walsh, Viviana Zuluaga-Ramirez, Jacob W. Myerson, Elizabeth D. Hood, Carlos H. Villa, Istvan Tombacz, Norbert Pardi, Alecia Seliga, Barbara L. Mui, Ying K. Tam, Patrick M. Glassman, Vladimir V. Shuvaev, Jia Nong, Jacob S. Brenner, Makan Khoshnejad, Tom Madden, Drew Weissmann, Yuri Persidsky, and Vladimir R. Muzykantov: Selective targeting of nanomedicine to inflamed cerebral vasculature to enhance the blood–brain barrier Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117(7): 3405-3414, Feb 2020.

back to top
Last updated: 03/13/2024
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania