Jerrold H Levy

Contact Information
UBC Centre for Blood Research
Life Sciences Centre
2350 Health Sciences Mall
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3
Tel: 1-919-681-6614
Emails: jerrold.levy@duke.edu; jlevy04@ubc.ca

Current Positions

  • UBC: Adjunct Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia.
  • Duke University: Professor of Surgery (Cardiothoracic), and Professor Emeritus of Anesthesiology and Critical Care
  • Vice Chair, Scientific Subcommittees of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Research Interests & Publications

My research interests have primarily been in four interrelated areas.  These include 1) strategies to prevent or treat bleeding in critically ill patients, 2) therapeutic strategies for anticoagulation and reversal, 3) approaches to treat or prevent acute inflammatory injury and thromboinflammation, and 4) pharmacologic strategies for acute cardiovascular dysfunction and shock.

  1. Strategies to prevent or treat bleeding in critically ill patients

Coagulopathy and bleeding are major problems in patients during and following extracorporeal circulation, following surgery, or traumatic injury.  I have been developing pharmacologic and non transfusional strategies to reduce bleeding and allogeneic blood exposure for over 30 years in this pursuit.  I first showed a reduction in transfusion and stroke in patients receiving a serine protease inhibitor, aprotinin, following high-risk reoperations in cardiac surgery.  I have also studied other recombinant and purified factors for reducing bleeding, including recombinant factor VIIa, purified factor concentrates, and have evaluated new therapeutic approaches for clinical use. I was also on the steering committee for the prospective study of the age of red blood cell use in cardiac surgery (RECESS study).

  1. Levi M, Levy JH, Andersen HF, Truloff D. Safety of recombinant activated factor VII in randomized clinical trials. N Engl J Med. 2010;363:1791-800. PMID: 21047223.
  2. Steiner ME, Ness PM, Assmann SF, Triulzi DJ, Sloan SR, Delaney M, Granger S, Bennett-Guerrero E, Blajchman MA, Scavo V, Carson JL, Levy JH, et al:. Effects of red-cell storage duration on patients undergoing cardiac surgery. N Engl J Med. 2015;372:1419-29. PMID: 25853746.
  3. Frere C, Mazzeffi M, Maier CL, Helms J, Steiner ME, Sullenger BA, Tanaka KA, Connors JM, Levy JH. Acquired von Willebrand syndrome during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support: a comprehensive review of current evidence: Communication from the ISTH SSC on Perioperative and Critical Care Thrombosis and Hemostasis. J Thromb Haemost. 2024 Jun 24:. PMID: 38925492.
  4. Karkouti K, Callum JL, Bartoszko J…Levy JH; FARES-II Study Group. Prothrombin Complex Concentrate vs Frozen Plasma for Coagulopathic Bleeding in Cardiac Surgery: The FARES-II Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2025 May 27;333(20):1781-1792. PMID: 40156829

 

  1. Therapeutic strategies for anticoagulation and reversal.

Anticoagulation to prevent hemostatic activation is a critical therapy in cardiovascular medicine during extracorporeal circulation, mechanical circulatory support, and cardiovascular disease.  The increasing use of oral anticoagulants for stroke prophylaxis and antiplatelet therapy poses additional concerns for bleeding in patients requiring surgery or following trauma. My work has focused on modulating thrombin generation to develop novel recombinant, purified factor concentrates, and pharmacologic approaches to anticoagulation reversal. I was the first to study a recombinant protein, antithrombin as a therapeutic agent for extracorporeal circulation.  Currently, there are no approved reversal strategies for P2Y12 platelet inhibitors like clopidogrel, and I demonstrate factor VIIa restored thrombin generation in an in vitro model.  My current work has focused on managing bleeding and developing reversal strategies for the nonvitamin K oral anticoagulants.

  1. Levy JH, Moore KT, Neal MD, Schneider D, Marcsisin VS, Ariyawansa J, Weitz JI. Rivaroxaban reversal with prothrombin complex concentrate or tranexamic acid in healthy volunteers. J Thromb Haemost. 2018;16:54-64. PMID: 29106076.
  2. Levy JH, van Ryn J, Sellke FW, Reilly PA, Elsaesser A, Glund S, Kreuzer J, Weitz JI, Pollack CV Jr. Dabigatran Reversal With Idarucizumab in Patients Requiring Urgent Surgery: A Subanalysis of the RE-VERSE AD Study. Ann Surg. 2019 Oct 9. [Epub] PubMed PMID: 31599808.
  3. Levy JH, Shaw JR, Castellucci LA, Connors JM, Douketis J, Lindhoff-Last E, Rocca B, Samama CM, Siegal D, Weitz JI. Reversal of direct oral anticoagulants: Guidance from the SSC of the ISTH: R1. J Thromb Haemost. 2024 Jul 17:Epub. PMID:39029742.
  4. Levy JH, Alexander PMA, Wolberg AS, et al. ECMO-induced coagulopathy: strategic initiatives for research and clinical practice (a workshop report of the NHLBI). Blood Vessel Thromb Hemost. 2025 Feb 25;2(2):100064.  PMID: 40766281

 

  1. Approaches to treat or prevent acute inflammatory injury and thromboinflammation.

Multiple triggers can produce acute inflammatory responses, including tissue injury, extracorporeal circulation, and sepsis.  Coagulation and inflammation are closely linked by humoral and cellular components, and are the basis of thrombinflammatory responses that occur in acute infection and extracorporeal circulation. Complement activation and the resulting activation of inflammation represent an important mechanism for injury in cardiopulmonary bypass and acute infection.  Therapeutic approaches using complement inhibitors are a novel area of therapeutics under investigation that may hold promise for cardiac surgical and critically ill patients by controlling complement activation or its biologically active mediators. I previously was on the steering committee for a C5 convertase inhibitor, pexelizumab studied in cardiac surgical patients, a molecule that was later approved for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome.

  1. Verrier ED, Shernan SK, Taylor KM, Van de Werf F, Newman MF, Chen JC, Carrier M, Haverich A, Malloy KJ, Adams PX, Todaro TG, Mojcik CF, Rollins SA, Levy JH; PRIMO-CABG Investigators. Terminal complement blockade with pexelizumab during coronary artery bypass graft surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2004;291:2319-27. PMID: 15150203.
  2. Iba T, Levy JH, Hirota T, Hiki M, Sato K, Murakami T, Nagaoka I. Protection of the endothelial glycocalyx by antithrombin in an endotoxin-induced rat model of sepsis. Thromb Res. 2018;171:1-6. PMID: 30216821.
  3. Connors JM, Levy JH. COVID-19 and its implications for thrombosis and anticoagulation. 2020 Jun 4;135(23):2033-2040. PMID: 32339221.
  4. Gigante B, Levy JH, van Gorp E, Bartoloni A, Bochaton-Piallat ML, et al.. Management of patients on antithrombotic therapy with severe infections: a joint clinical consensus statement of the ESC Working Group on Thrombosis, the ESC Working Group on Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology, and the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis. Eur Heart J. 2023 Aug 22;44(32):3040-3058

 

  1. Pharmacologic strategies for acute cardiovascular dysfunction and shock.

Pharmacologic management of critically ill patients includes therapy of acute hemodynamic instability. In my prior research laboratory at Emory, we evaluated vascular dysfunction and studied factors that influenced vascular responses. I also studied phosphodiesterase inhibitors in vitro and in clinical trials of cardiac surgical patients.  I also served on the steering committee for levosimendan, a novel inotropic agent in cardiac surgical patients, and for the development of clevidipine, an arterial vasodilator used extensively in clinical practice. 

  1. Huraux C, Makita T, Kurz S, Yamaguchi K, Szlam F, Tarpey MM, Wilcox JN, Harrison DG, Levy JH. Superoxide production, risk factors, and endothelium-dependent relaxations in human internal mammary arteries. Circulation. 1999;99:53-9. PMID: 9884379.
  2. Bailey JM, Lu W, Levy JH, Ramsay JG, Shore-Lesserson L, Prielipp RC, Brister NW, Roach GW, Jolin-Mellgard A, Nordlander M. Clevidipine in adult cardiac surgical patients: a dose-finding study. Anesthesiology. 2002;96:1086-94. PMID: 11981147.
  3. Mehta RH, Leimberger JD, van Diepen S, Meza J, Wang A, Jankowich R, Harrison RW, Hay D, Fremes S, Duncan A, Soltesz EG, Luber J, Park S, Argenziano M, Murphy E, Marcel R, Kalavrouziotis D, Nagpal D, Bozinovski J, Toller W, Heringlake M, Goodman SG, Levy JH, et al; LEVO-CTS Investigators. Levosimendan in patients with left ventricular dysfunction undergoing cardiac surgery. N Engl J Med. 2017;376:2032-2042. PMID: 28316276.
  4. Ghadimi K, Cappiello JL, Wright MC, Levy JH, Bryner BS, DeVore AD, Schroder JN, Patel CB, Rajagopal S, Shah SH; INSPIRE-FLO Investigators. Inhaled Epoprostenol Compared With Nitric Oxide for Right Ventricular Support After Major Cardiac Surgery. Circulation. 2023 Jul 4. PMID: 37401479.

 

Complete List of Published Work in MyBibliography:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=levy+jh

 

Education

Education and Training

B.S.: Cell Biology: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1970–1974

M.D.: University of Miami, Miami, Florida, 1974–1978

Postdoctoral Training

Internal Medicine
Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, Florida, 1978–1979

Residency – Anesthesiology
Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, 1979–1981

Chief Resident – Anesthesiology
Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, 1981

Fellowships
Cardiac Anesthesiology and Respiratory Intensive Care
Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, 1981-1983