8 CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES UPDATE SUMMER 2018 Stepping It Up With completion of the highly promising GAMES-RP study, it was not surprising that “big pharma” would become interested. In 2017, Biogen acquired the RP-1127 (renamed Cirara) program from Remedy Pharmaceuticals for the specific purpose of sponsoring a pivotal Phase 3 trial in LHI. Biogen recently completed their efforts to secure approval for their clinical trial design from US (FDA), European and Japanese regulatory agencies. Now, Biogen is poised to begin enrolling patients in a world-wide, 100-center, 680 subject Phase 3 clinical trial of intravenous glyburide in LHI. Aptly, given its roots in Baltimore, the study is named CHARM—Cirara in large Hemispheric infarction Analysing mRS and Mortality. In CHARM, as in GAMES-RP, Dr. Carolyn Cronin will serve as the University of Maryland principal investigator, leading a team of world-class stroke neurologists (Drs. John W. Cole, Steven J. Kittner, Jose Merino, Melissa Motta, Michael Phipps and Marcella Wozniak). The CHARM study is in the planning stage to begin enrolling LHI patients within nine hours of symptom onset during Summer 2018. This is the final step in the transition from Dr. Simard’s basic science work at University of Maryland to the first medical therapy to prevent edema in patients with the most devastating strokes. To refer patients, call Maryland Express Care at 410-328-1234 to speak to the Brain Attack Team neurologist on call. n Orest Tsymbalyuk, MD, a researcher in Dr. Simard’s lab, studies traumatic brain injury in preclinical models. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 STROKE OF INSIGHT Dr. Simard and his research team maintain a rigorous research schedule that includes the following funded projects: “Gulf War neurotoxicants and acquired cognitive and neuropsychological dysfunction” ($250,000/Funding: VA Maryland Health Care System) “Spinal cord injury, progressive hemorrhagic necrosis and the NC(Ca-ATP) channel” ($250,000/Funding: NIH/NINDS) “TrpM4 channel in spinal cord injury” ($250,000/Funding: NIH/NINDS) “Non-canonical NF-kappaB signaling and Sur1-Trpm4 in traumatic brain injury” ($250,000/Funding: NIH/BINP) “Astrocyte regulation of the blood-brain barrier in intracerebral hemorrhage” ($250,000/Funding: NIN/NHLBI) “Fn14, non-canonical NF-kappaB and the downstream signaling in neuropathic pain” ($292,730/Funding: NIH/NINDS)