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About

Mission

The key mission of the institute is to position Texas A&M University as the leader in developing new therapies for brain disorders, leveraging state of the art facilities, training programs, resources, and neuroscience forums in which Texas A&M, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), and Texas A&M Health already play a major role. This endeavor would enhance the university's prominence in neurotherapeutic segments of civilian and military medicine.

Goals

  • Foster collaborations for large grants in neurotherapeutics fields, especially multi-PI awards, program projects and center grants.
  • Enhance existing capabilities, leverage current expertise, drive high impact translational research across the colleges, and enhance our competencies for extramural funding and industry projects.
  • Expand educational activities and training programs such as workshops and courses.
  • Promote educational excellence and training of undergraduates, graduate and medical students, and postdocs in pharmacology and neurotherapeutic research.
  • Improve visibility and increase expertise in translational research for novel treatment options for nervous systems disorders.
  • Optimize and streamline the process for intellectual property and development of neuro products and smart devices.
  • Improve diagnostics (early detection), prevention and prognostic strategies for neurological disease.

Impact

Brain diseases affect about 500 million people worldwide and many are disabled due to lack of effective therapies. Brain disorders affect roughly 25% of the U.S. population and cost the U.S. economy more than $1.5 trillion per year—underscoring the scale of potential benefit from developing new therapies.

There are unmet needs in medical therapies for both acute neuronal injuries (stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury) and chronic neurological conditions (epilepsy, migraine, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease). Similar status is evident for schizophrenia, depression, autism and drug addiction. Thus, the goal of curing these brain conditions remains elusive with current therapies. The emerging neural technologies have unprecedented potential for a new revolution in neurotherapeutics, especially for patients afflicted by chronic brain conditions. Texas A&M is marching towards this 21st century revolution in neurotherapeutics.

Leadership

Founding Director

Dr. Samba Reddy is a professor of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Engineering Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and Veterinary Integrative Biosciences. He earned pharmacy and PhD degrees and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Dr. Reddy joined Texas A&M in 2008 where he pioneered the field of neurosteroids by researching epilepsy neurotherapeutics. His seminal contributions include discovery of a neurocode for treating epilepsy and a novel neurosteroid-replacement therapy to treat epilepsy, women’s health and brain disorders. Dr. Reddy’s transformational contributions led to developing two new medicines: ganaxolone (Ztalmy), the first neurosteroid for epilepsy, and brexanolone (Zulresso), the first FDA-approved drug for postpartum depression, which are now used in clinics worldwide. In a patented invention, he discovered that neurosteroids can terminate hard-to-treat seizures, called status epilepticus, and his product was selected by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority ($51 M) for phase-3 clinical trials in patients. Dr. Reddy is a prolific inventor, holding several patents and inventions and 150 invited/keynote talks. Named one of the world’s top 2 percent of scientists by the Stanford University survey, he published over 220 papers/chapters (h-index 56) and five popular textbooks, mentored and trained around 100 students and postdocs, and authored/co-authored around 450 presentations. He has received awards from top scientific organizations in the United States, India and Europe, and is an elected fellow in three major organizations: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), and the American Epilepsy Society. He is an associate/guest editor of Experimental Neurology, Current Protocols, Epilepsy Currents, and Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience journals. Dr. Reddy received the 2020 AAPS Global Leader Award, a pivotal distinction for his stellar research contributions with an outstanding impact on public health worldwide.