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J. Marc Simard is the first repeat winner in the 13-year history of the Founders Week awards. Research Lecturer of the Year in 2007 for his seminal work on the regulation of ion channels in vascular cells of the brain and spinal cord, Simard was named 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year for moving his research closer to patients' bedsides. But Simard, a School of Medicine professor of neurosurgery, pathology, and physiology, isn't resting on his much-deserved laurels. He’s more concerned with the 700,000 new stroke victims in the U.S. each year. And the 97 percent of them who receive no drug-based treatment. Remedy Pharmaceuticals, the company established in 2004 to develop Simard’s discoveries, is fine-tuning a treatment, using the diabetes medication glyburide, for patients suffering from stroke, spinal cord, and traumatic brain injury. Efforts are under way to raise $22 million to fund a clinical trial, the next step in the regulatory approval process. "There's not much that can be done with injuries of that sort right now," Simard says. "We think our discovery will open new therapeutic pathways and give victims of these debilitating and often fatal injuries options for a better quality of life." Simard is one of UMB's most prolific inventors, with 30 issued and pending patents, both in the U.S. and abroad. | |
