Current Brain Lab Projects  

Traumatic Brain Injury

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  • We are collaborating with the Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD) and the Department of Defense to develop a “field-ready” version of progesterone that is more stable, soluble and easy to administer in emergency and combat situations. 

Cerebral Stroke

  • We are combining progesterone with clot-busters like tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) to determine whether the combination will be safer and more effective in reducing stroke pathology than tPA alone. Unfortunately only about 3-5% of stroke patients get tPA because they don’t recognize the symptoms in time to be given the drug. 
  • We are conducting studies on progesterone dosing, duration of treatment and window of opportunity for treatment in permanent and transient models of ischemic stroke. These steps are required to gain FDA approval to use progesterone in treating ischemic stroke. 
  • We are studying whether toll-like receptors modulate the inflammatory response to injury and whether blocking the receptors will lead to better functional outcomes. 
  • We are collaborating with medical colleagues to plan a Phase II clinical trial testing progesterone in stroke. 

Retinal Stroke

  • We are investigating whether progesterone can reduce the deficits caused by two different models of retinal stroke. Preliminary data show that progesterone reduces retinal cell loss and improves recording of evoked potentials from the occipital cortex after visual stimulation.

Nervous System Tumors

  • We are testing the ability of very high dose progesterone treatments to reduce the volume of deadly brain tumors such as glioblastoma and pediatric neuroblastoma. 

Combination therapies

  • We are studying whether Vitamin D Hormone (VDH) and progesterone given together will work better in than either hormone alone. VDH is related to progesterone and acts through different mechanisms to reduce inflammation and edema.  
  • In the elderly and the very young, Vitamin D deficiency appears to reduce the beneficial effects of progesterone. We are working to find out why.
Brain Research Laboratory • 1365B Clifton Road NE, Suite 5100 • Atlanta, Georgia 30322