Ronald L. Klein, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Neuroscience
Ph.D., 1995, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver

Major Research Interests:
The Laboratory of Brain Gene Transfer.  Neurodegenerative diseases are pernicious and effective drugs are quite limited, so novel therapeutic strategies are needed.  The lab employs highly efficient viral vector gene delivery in rodent models of Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases for studying the disease process, and for the long-term goal of protecting neurons from degenerating.  Some of the genes expressed include alpha-synuclein, microtubule-associated protein tau, and nerve growth factor.

Selected recent publications:

Klein R.L., Dayton R.D., Lin W.L., Dickson D.W. (2005) Tau gene transfer, but not alpha-synuclein, induces both progressive dopamine neuron degeneration and rotational behavior in the rat.  Neurobiol. Dis. 20:64-73.

 Klein R.L., Dayton R.D., Leidenheimer N.J., Jansen K., Golde T.E., Zweig R.M. (2006) Efficient neuronal gene transfer with AAV8 leads to neurotoxic levels of tau or green fluorescent proteins, Mol. Ther. 13:517-527.

 Klein R.L., Dayton R.D., Tatom J.B., Henderson K.M, Henning P.P.  (2008) AAV 8, 9, Rh10, Rh43 vector gene transfer in the rat brain: effects of serotype, promoter and purification method. Mol. Ther., 16:89-96.

 Klein R.L., Dayton R.D., Tatom J.B., Diaczynsky C.G., Salvatore, M.F.  (2008) Tau expression levels from various adeno-associated virus vector serotypes produce graded neurodegenerative disease states. Eur. J. Neurosci., 27:1615-1625.

Contact Info:
Dr. Ronald L. Klein
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Neuroscience
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
1501 Kings Highway
Shreveport, LA 71130-3932
318-675-7830
klein@lsuhsc.edu

C.V. and lab information