Stamping Out Strokes

One person dies every four minutes from a stroke.

It's the third leading cause of death and disability in our country. Those are sobering stats, but Florida Atlantic University's Jang-Yen Wu is working to quash those numbers. Wu, a professor of biomedical science and a neuroscientist in the Schmidt College of Medicine, has filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a novel agent that shows promise for the treatment of strokes.

"While there have been significant strides made in stroke research as well as major advances in stroke care, effective treatments are still insufficient and require a continued quest for new remedies," notes a press release. "Current drugs designed for stroke intervention and treatment are based on their antioxidative properties or blockers of calcium channels or glutamate receptors. However, no clinically effective therapeutic intervention for stroke has yet been developed."

FAU researchers discovered that a certain substance, currently used to treat alcohol abuse, could help treat conditions associated with a lack of oxygen to tissues, such as stroke.

Stephen Chakoff, director and founder of CHS Pharma Inc., who has been working with scientists from FAU for almost a decade, adds: "If successful, this latest discovery by Dr. Wu has the potential to be a game changer in the way we treat stroke."