Professors » Raul Cavalcante Maranhão
Raul Cavalcante Maranhão, MD, Ph.D, graduated in Medicine at the University of Brasilia (UnB) in 1973 and finished in 1976 the Residenceship in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of São Paulo Medical School Hospital, and also majored in Occupational Medicine in 1977, when was hired as physician by the Health Secretary of the State of São Paulo a position that he holds to date. He got his Ph.D degree in Physiology at the Biomedical Institute of the University of São Paulo (1981), with a Thesis on cholesterol body regulation. He had a 2 ½ year Post-Doctoral period at the Biophysics Institute of Boston University Medical School, finished in 1984 and to where he returned as Visiting Professor in 1990, at the Molecular Biology Division. Dr. Maranhão is Professor of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of São Paulo since 1984, and there he got a Privat Dozent degree in Clinical Biochemistry in 1987. He is currently Head Professor of Clinical Bliochemistry of that Faculty. Since 1984, he belongs to the staff of the Heart Institute of the University of São Paulo Medical School Hospital, where he is the Director of the Laboratory of Metabolism and Lipids, wherein he conducts his research projects. In 1984, Dr. Maranhão developed a new method to study the metabolism of chylomicrons in human subjects and with this tool he performed the largest clinical description of those fundamental lipoproteins in the literature to date (see J Amer Coll Cardiol, 2004). He also introduced in Brazil the studies on lipoprotein (a), an important atherogenic risk factor and developed the first practical method to analyze in vitro the process of lipid transfers among lipoproteins, which has been used to explore this process and the anti-atherogenic functions of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in several clinical conditions (for a review, Adv Clin Chem, 2014). He also proposed a novel theory for cholesterol deposition in the artery (J Lipid Res, 2003). Dr. Maranhão is a world pioneer in Nanotechnology applied to Medicine and Pharmacy by describing the first non-liposomal drug carrier system with the ability to concentrate chemotherapeutic agents in malignant neoplastic cells and tissues (BJMBR, 1992, Cancer Res,1994). Subsequently, it was found in experimental animals and in cancer patients that the novel system drastically reduces the toxicity of the chemotherapeutic agents without reducing the pharmacological effects. This paved the way for new approaches in Cancer Chemotherapy and the possibility of treating other chronic proliferative and inflammatory diseases with the powerful weaponry of anti-cancer drugs. This was also a world pioneer proposition that has been successfully tested in experimental animal models of atherosclerosis, heart transplantation and rheumatoid arthritis (for a review, Expert Opin Drug Delivery, 2015), as well anti-scarring treatment for glaucoma surgery. Those nanoparticle-drug system formulations are also being tested in ongoing clinical trials aiming to establish their utility in the treatment of coronary artery disease and bone marrow transplantation, in addition to chemotherapy in patients with hematologic and solid cancers that has been object of investigation since 1996. He leads a fully multidisciplinary research line in Translational Medicine and his publications span journals of several different fields. Dr. Maranhão was granted patents from the United States Patent Office and holds a 1A Research Career Award from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) of Brazil and was recipient of four Thematic Projects from the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP) and many other grants from FAPESP, CNPq and FINEP. He is currently vice-coordinator of a National Institute Project from the Ministry of Science and Technology, in the area of Complex Fluids, applied by the Institute of Physics of the University of São Paulo.
E-mail: ramarans@usp.br
Phone number: +55 11 26615951
Last update 21/12/2016 às 12h00