"The notion that progesterone might blunt the effects of brain injury originated with Donald Stein, a neuroscientist and a professor of emergency medicine at Emory. 

Progesterone appears to affect multiple physiologic processes that follow an acute injury. It reduces the cerebral swelling that leads to brain cells dying off, for example. Progesterone also may blunt cellular damage from free radicals and promote myelin production in damaged nerve cells, experts believe."


The Brain Research Lab of Emory University

Our team of research professors and post-doctoral and graduate student investigators studies the actions of progesterone and its metabolites in a variety of central nervous system disorders.

In collaboration with physicians and scientists here at Emory and around the world, we conduct basic and translational research.  

Our work has advanced to clinical testing in the following human trials:

  • Two independent Phase II clinical trials for safety and efficacy of progesterone found that in severely brain-injured patients, mortality was reduced by almost 60% compared to standard care, and functional outcomes were significantly better. (source)
  • ProTECT III, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is a Phase 3, multi-center, national trial using progesterone to treat moderate to severe TBI. 
  • SyNAPSe, a Phase 3 trial supported by BHR Pharma, is underway in the United States, Europe, Israel, Russia, Singapore and China. 

In this short video, Dr. Stein shares a brief overview regarding progesterone as a treatment for brain injury. He is a researcher with an international reputation in the field of brain injury and directs the Brain Lab.
Brain Research Laboratory • 1365B Clifton Road NE, Suite 5100 • Atlanta, Georgia 30322