This wouldn't be so bad if the damage remained localized, but when the smothered cells die they release a substance that overexcites their neighboring cells and causes them to die and release still more of the substance. It's a chain reaction. This domino effect can continue for hours or even days. As the cell death slowly ripples through an area of the brain, it may lead to widespread paralysis, inability to speak, coma, or death. Each year stroke afflicts 400,000 Americans and kills 150,000.
Doctors tending to stroke and head-trauma victims have few effective options.
No existing drug treatments can keep the dominoes from falling. Keana and his UO research team, working in collaboration with Eckard Weber, a pharmacology professor at the University of California at Irvine, have developed two neuro-protective drugs. The first, called Cerestat, erects a chemical barricade that shields the still-standing dominoes from those that are tumbling. Both drugs are currently undergoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration testing. The university, of course, has neither the means nor the mission for such an undertaking, so we partner with private corporations, usually early in the research phase.